


Dangan Ronpa: Despair Aria

by Nhitori



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mastermind, Other, Talentswap, alternate mastermind au, warning for mentions of non-con
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2018-04-04 20:30:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 39
Words: 43,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4151802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhitori/pseuds/Nhitori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mukuro Ikusaba prides herself on her good luck, and that certainly came in handy when she was picked in a lottery to receive tutelage at Hope’s Peak Academy, the most prestigious school in the country.  With certainty that this would lead her to success in life, she truly was Super High School Level Good Luck; even if, when she wakes up, it turns out that the school is not what it seems.  Despite the panic, she will rely on her good luck to help her survive, and with just a little more luck, maybe her super-hacker sister and the attractive heir, Naegi Makoto, would be walking through those doors with her.</p><p>(Please discuss theories in the comments!)</p><p> </p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When Junko Enoshima received news of her invitation to Hope's Peak Academy (prior to the invitation actually being sent, of course, thanks to the buzzword bug she'd set up on its administrator's email accounts that let her read any email with her name in it) she was ecstatic.  The official title which would be given to her was "Super High School Level Programmer", though as far as she was concerned she was more of a super-hacker.

 

However, the ecstasy didn’t take much time to run out.  Junko’s second thought was concern that she would be separated from her sister.  Now, Junko Enoshima did not have dependency issues.  From the first day of preschool, she made lots of friends, and could have easily gone off with them without a second thought to her younger twin sister, sitting alone in the corner.  She had no personal qualms about it, but for some reason felt compelled to stay by little Mukuro Ikusaba’s side.  For the remainder of preschool, Junko would only play at the stations Mukuro liked, and would only be friends with people who didn’t mind that her sister tagged along for everything.  Even when Junko started having sleepovers, Mukuro was always there.  Not that anybody cared very much.  She hardly talked, and practically wasn’t there anyway.

 

Junko first learned programming out of protectiveness.  Despite not caring much if they were separated, spending all that time with her little sister gave her a very fierce fondness for her, and when some kid in the first grade beat her up, Junko immediately started planning her revenge.  She didn’t think she could fight well enough to give the kid what-for, so instead she figured out how to hack into his Webkinz account and delete everything he’d worked hard for.  She also may have made the executive decision to take some creative liberty and turn the NPCs into something far more frightening.  She actually started a rumor throughout the first grade at her school, about Webkinz being hacked on a large scale.

 

She could have made that true, but she didn’t bother.  She’d rather reserve it for times when tormentors of her precious sister needed to be taught a lesson.  Throughout the entirety of elementary school, she kept coming up with better ways to punish those who thought that they could mess with Ikusaba.  She really was lucky to have a sister like Junko.

 

By Junior High, both the girls had hit puberty in some propensity, and started dating people.  Mukuro tagged along on Junko’s dates, sitting a row behind her at the movies, a booth away at restaurants.  She never interfered, but she was there, because she didn’t want to be alone.  Junko came on Mukuro’s dates as well, talking her up and making her seem like a much better potential girlfriend than her own merits gave her before going off to sit a ways away, watching to make sure nothing happened.  When, at age 14, a boy ran his hands all over her, and as soon as he let her go she ran to Junko crying, she sent his parents his incognito browser history, and sent the school the facebook messages where he talked about how easy it was to touch quiet girls’ boobs.  He got grounded, and expelled from that school, and Mukuro never saw him again.

 

That was just what Junko did, anyway.  That was what she did for her.  In return, Mukuro listened.  Junko got the top bunk and Mukuro let her talk into the dark hours of the morning, going on and on about just whatever.  Even when staying up that late would make them both fail their test the next day, neither of them really cared.  This was how they were.  They were each other’s closest friends, really, and while Junko wouldn’t have minded being alone, she’d grown used to the togetherness.  And Mukuro, she couldn’t just let her go to a public high school, all alone.  Something terrible was bound to happen to her.

 

So Junko did a little bit more digging.  Not too much, but she found out that Hope’s Peak Academy was also planning on inviting a student to the school based on the talent of good luck.  A name, pulled from a lottery.  So she got into the database of all eligible citizens of Japan, and wrote a program.  Every time she clicked it, she came up with some random name she didn’t know, but when she let Mukuro have a try she got herself five times in a row.

 

It was a relief, but not a surprise when she got picked to go to Hope’s Peak.  All her life, she had never doubted that she was a very lucky person.  She was lucky to have such a vengeful person as her twin sister, for example.  Bad things happened to her, but the people who hurt her always got their just desserts, courtesy of Junko.  If she hoped that something would happen, it would.  She could guess on multiple choice quizzes and get everything right.  What she lacked in just about any personality whatsoever, she made up for in luck.  The quiet girl in the corner who nobody liked, at least she was lucky.

 

-

 

Mukuro Ikusaba woke up alone and scared.  She remembered walking up the steps to Hope’s Peak Academy, standing beside Junko and pushing the door open.  That was it.  Now, she was in a classroom, having just been unconscious, and there was nobody else there.  Junko was not there.  She stood up immediately, blots of black and purple clouding her vision.  Low blood pressure, was all.  She got her bearing quickly, and didn’t bother examining anything in the classroom.  She merely went straight for the door.  She didn’t have time to question anything.  She had to find her sister!

 

On the opposite side of the door was a hallway.  This was Hope’s Peak, wasn’t it?  It looked just like the pictures Junko had shown her.  All the public pictures on the website were edited to look as pleasant as possible, so of course her sister showed her the candid shots sent in emails between the administrators discussing such things as the student body’s size, and funding.  It looked right, but there was something off about the atmosphere.

 

_The entrance hall._

 

The thought echoed in her mind, and she took off at a full-tilt dash.  That’s where people would be, right?  Junko would have gone there looking for her, so she would have to go there looking for Junko.  She was pretty fast, seeing as Junko had wanted to join softball every year from the second grade on, so Mukuro tagged along and joined as well.

 

The Super High School Level Lucky Student crashed into the entrance hall, falling forward and sliding a few inches with all her weight on her right shoulder.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, are you all right?” A soft voice was the first thing she heard when she stopped skidding, and she looked up to see somebody who was possibly (just possibly) the most attractive person on the planet. Actually, he looked kind of silly. He had well-kept brown hair, and his face was really adorable. It looked incredibly out of place on his body, which was clad in an expensive suit. She stared at him for a while.

“You’re…” She spoke in a monotone, and pointed up at him from the floor, “You’re like a bunny, but you dress like a rich person.” The others in the room cringed when she said this, expecting the boy to respond in some rude manner, but instead he only laughed quietly.

“I dress like a rich person because I am a rich person. My name’s Makoto Naegi, and I’m the Super High School Level Heir.” He held out a hand to help her up, and she took it, standing sheepishly without there being the slightest bit of change in her facial expression, which was simply very blank, “And what’s your name?”

“I’m Mukuro Ikusaba…” She responded, letting go of his hand to cross her arms.

“Oh, you’re the one who won the lottery, right? The Super High School Level Lucky Student? That’s really cool.” He smiled at her, “Much better than my talent. I mean, I’m just good at being rich. That’s not exactly useful…”

“Where’s my sister?” She asked suddenly, slight panic in her voice.

“I don’t know. Who’s your sister?” He questioned, looking around the room. There were three other girls in the room, and none of them looked anything like Mukuro.

“Junko Enoshima.” She answered with a small nod.

“She’s not here yet.” Naegi said, having already become acquainted with the others in the room.

“If she isn’t here then where is she??” That panic was growing a bit larger.

“In your butt, lol.” One of the girls shouted over obnoxiously, and despite the nerves which were getting worse by the minute, Mukuro recognized her as Touko Fukawa, the Super High School Level Doujin Author.

“Why, Touko.” Another girl spoke, disturbingly forward, “I must say, with such crude language and behavior as that, it doesn’t shock me in the slightest that your talent is creating such perverted works.”

“At least I create works of art instead of trashy romance novels like you, Taeko!” The girl grumbled, crossing her arms across her chest and turning her nose up, “You’re no better than me, except your readers can’t even see the juicy bits!”

“How rude of you.” The girl shot right back, her short drills bouncing a bit as she turned her head, “I didn’t become the Super High School Level Literary Girl for writing smut! I got the title because I write passionate and loving romances that don’t go overboard with their steamy scenes! Whereas you, on the other hand, simply draw such uncultured things as Shinji pounding Kaworu’s ass into the mattress.”

“Shut your face! I got the title because I’m a tasteful doujin author! You won’t see any shotacon or incest from me! Just wholesome, consensual sex between people over the age of sixteen!” Fukawa stuck her tongue out, and her debate opponent did similarly.

“Stop fighting.” A voice sounded out from the corner, the third girl in the room and the only person there who hadn’t said a word yet. She looked up, letting her dark blue hair slip away from her face to reveal the eyepatch across her right eye, “Don’t use those words in my presence again.”

“U-uh…” Mukuro spoke again, softly, “Who is she? And… wasn’t the Literary Girl somebody named Celestia Ludenberg…?”

“Celestia Ludenberg?” The girl questioned, “That’s just a pen name. There’s no reason for anyone who knows me personally to call me that. My real name is Taeko Yasuhiro. You may address me as Yasuhiro, unless we are lovers or enemies, in which case I will accept the use of my first name as endearing or spiteful respectively.”

“And that girl over there?” Fukawa continued, pointing to the girl who was now holding a butcher knife, using it to pick dirt out from under her fingernails, “That’s Sayaka Maizono. She was the Super High School Level Idol, but… did you hear the story about her? It’s a real biggie. Kinda makes me glad I never accepted commissions to make doujin about her.”

“No, I didn’t. What happened?” Worrying about Junko would have to wait a bit, seeing as she was curious.

“Well…” Naegi responded, “She’s now the Super High School Level Serial Murderer. Shortly after her acceptance into Hope’s Peak, she started killing off all the producers and such that she’d ever worked with. She got off without punishment thanks to a mix of money and those producers being found guilty of... certain things, based on her testimony and that of other girls they’d worked with. I wouldn’t wanna get on her bad side. She’s clearly very vengeful.”

“That’s terrible!” Mukuro exclaimed, “The poor girl… Yasuhiro, Fukawa, if she doesn’t want you to talk about that sort of thing around her, you really shouldn’t. It probably gives her bad memories.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” Fukawa shrugged, and Yasuhiro agreed with a small nod.

“Hey hey, bastards! You seen my sister!?” A loud and enthusiastic broke into the room as the doors slammed open again, and there was Junko, screaming these words with her eyes squeezed shut. When she opened them, she immediately brightened up and ran over to Mukuro, hugging her and actually lifting her into the air a bit, “Sis! Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah I’m fine now.” She offered her sister a slight smile, “I was really scared, though.”

“So… you’re Enoshima?” Naegi asked, watching the siblings’ reunion.

“Yeah-huh!” She responded, putting Mukuro down and letting go of her, “That’s me! Junko Enoshima, Super-Duper High School Hacker! And you’re… Makoto Naegi, right? The heir? Or as I like to say, the future sugar daddy?”

“Uh.” He seemed sort of shocked by her demeanor, “Yeah I am… Naegi. I’m the heir.”

“You’re pretty cute.” She snapped her fingers, then turned to look at the others, “Oh hell, this is nowhere near the whole class! So many people are still conked out in those classrooms!”

No sooner had Junko finished this statement than the doors to the entrance hall opened again.


	3. Chapter 3

“I apologize if I am at all late…” A gravelly but soft voice came from the… woman? She was probably a woman, anyway, who had opened the door.

“I… don’t even know what time we were supposed to be here.” Naegi chuckled a bit, his voice ridiculously smooth. How did rich people always end up so… that? “So no, I don’t think you’re late. If you are, then it’s a herd thing anyhow. More than half of the class isn’t even here yet.”

“In that case, I will refrain from worrying unless further information comes up.” She nodded slowly, “I will introduce myself. I already know of all of you, because I make it a habit to know the names of all my classmates before beginning school. I am Sakura Oogami, the Super High School Level Hall Monitor. I do hope that this confusion is merely a small blip in our high school career, and we will resume classes as planned soon.”

“Yeah you can hope.” Maizono spoke up again, one eye dull as she pointed the knife at the group, “But… do you honestly think Hope’s Peak Academy would board up all the windows like this? Lock us inside? Tell us nothing? Of course not. There’s something wrong here. Don’t come up with silly thoughts like that. We’re not going to be okay.”

“That weapon…” Oogami mumbled, “Knives are unacceptable in schools.”

“Pardon? This thing?” She asked, holding it as easily as if it were a cheerleading baton, “I found it here. Before I came to the entrance hall I went to the cafeteria and I stole this from the kitchen.” She then proceeded to pull four different pocketknifes from various bits of her clothing, “I could be waving these around too, but I’m not, soooo… you’ve really got no right.”

“But-” Sakura began to speak again, but was cut off by Yasuhiro.

“It’s best you don’t annoy her. She _is_ a murderer.” She frowned, “I’m sure that you could beat her in a fight, but now without major injury. It isn’t as if she’d hold back for fear of injuring herself. She did stab herself in the eye, after all.”

“I will… remain uninvolved in Miss Maizono’s affairs.” Oogami decided with a sigh, “However, I won’t hesitate to issue punishments to her for other offenses. Just because I can allow knives doesn’t mean she can get away with running in the halls.”

“I will run in all the halls just you watch me, you gigantic bitch.” Maizono sneered before yawning, “Nevermind I won’t I hate running anyway.”

“Sayaka Maizono sure is a mystery!” An unfamiliar voice spoke out, and Mukuro looked around, only to see a boy with ridiculous orange hair step out from behind Sakura, “And a mystery that will likely remain unsolved for all time. Just like all girls, really, just scarier! Anybody know what’s going on here, anyway? My name’s Leon Kuwata and I just woke up here.”

“Leon… Kuwata?” Fukawa asked, then started laughing, “But aren’t you the Super High School Level Detective? If anyone should get what’s going on here, it oughta be you! How completely and utterly useless! You’re not even attractive!”

“Oh, put a sock in it, before I do it for you.” One other person walked out from behind the towering hall monitor, “Why don’t you go fuck yourself with a chainsaw or something?”

“B-Byakuya Togami!” She shouted, before running over to the corner and hiding behing Maizono, who simply picked up one of her braids and started sawing at it with her knife. Fukawa didn’t much seem to care, too focused on the newcomer, “Why are you here?”

“I’m here because I’m a stupendous baseball player.” Togami scoffed, “And you’re here because you draw penises for a living. You’re the one who should be getting asked about your position here.”

“Now, that’s not nice…” Yasuhiro’s words to Togami were sort of nasty, and Mukuro managed to notice the reason. There was definitely a different between the bickering she’d witnessed earlier and Togami’s words now. These insults were significantly more sincere.

“You know each other?” Mukuro asked.

“I-I-I-” Fukawa started before shouting out, “Yeah! Back in elementary school, Byakuya Togami was a real big b-bully! And he still is! D-don’t let him hurt me!”

“I’m not going to hurt you, Fukawa. I won’t even go anywhere near you. You smell too bad.”

“You’ve hurt me before! Y-you broke my arm and you broke my heart!” She shouted over Maizono’s head, “In first grade you p-pushed me down on the playground and t-told me that I’d never be a good enough artist to sell my d-drawings! Well look at me now, Togami! I! I’m a Super High School Level!”

“If you don’t stop yelling over me, I can and will stab you in the gut.” Maizono spoke harshly, and Fukawa moved to a different part of the room.

“Just don’t come anywhere near me and it’ll be fine. Regardless of your worthless statement that Kuwata here was unattractive, you did ask a worthy question of him.”

“Well, too bad, I know nothing! A detective can’t make a conclusion without evidence!” He sighed, scratching the back of his head, “I’ve got a whole host of theories, but it’s against my moral code to make claims before I can back them up with cold hard clues!”

The door opened again, “Mm. Well, I have no such qualms.” A girl with lilac hair who wore a yellow sundress stepped into the entrance hall, “Mostly because I don’t know what my talent is, so I can’t say I could have any moral code about it. Regardless, my theory is that we’ve been locked inside Hope’s Peak Academy for some sort of nefarious purpose. What it is, however, I haven’t the faintest idea.”

“Don’t know your talent? Well… what is your name? Perhaps somebody here will know what it is.” Sakura questioned.

“I’m… Kyoko Kirigiri. I don’t believe I was listed on the Hope’s Peak website.” She answered, “It isn’t simply that I don’t know my talent, but I rather remember absolutely nothing related to it. I have large gaps in my memory where talent-related activities should have been. It’s really a pain, but what can you do?”

“Kyoko Kirigiri!” Junko exclaimed, “Super High School Level Fashion Girl!”

“How did you know that?” Kirigiri asked, wide-eyed, “Or are you only guessing?”

“I’m a hacker, duh! Just because you weren’t listed on the website doesn’t mean you were never mentioned in any of the administration’s email trails!”

“I suppose that does make sense.” Kirigiri nodded, before turning around to watch the door open once more.


	4. Chapter 4

“I have arrived, the party can officially start!” The newcomer shouted into the room, stepping in an exaggerated fashion with her hands above her head. She had long brown hair in a messy ponytail, a red jacket, and a tattoo around her exposed bellybutton. She immediately walked up to Mukuro, “Hey, I like you, you look real cool!” Mukuro shrank away from the intimidating girl, who spit in her hand then held it out, “Come on, shake my hand! If you don’t, you’re a weenie!”

So she shook her hand, despite the fact that saliva is disgusting, and the girl grinned before stretching out and spinning around to look at the rest of her classmates, “It was real nice of whoever did it to bring me into a classroom when I fell asleep for no reason!”

“I… don’t think that’s what’s going on here.” Naegi spoke nervously, afraid of this walking hurricane who had just arrived.

“It’s not? Well then… what is going on here?” She questioned, putting her hands on her hips.

“We aren’t sure exactly, but it seems we all passed out just when we got to Hope’s Peak, and woke up in a classroom.” Leon answered, “It’s really unsettling!”

“Yeah, I’ll say!” She exclaimed, “Whatever! My name’s Aoi Asahina, and I’m the Super High School Level Biker Gang Leader!” She saluted, for some reason, “I’ll look forward to getting to know all of you, especially you, uh…” She trailed off, staring at Mukuro.

“Mukuro Ikusaba.” She responded, staring at her.

“Right, you, Ikusaba!” She laughed, then looked up at Oogami, “Hey, you’re real intimidating, what’s your talent? I bet it’s something big-time cool!”

“I am a hall monitor.” Sakura answered, “My name is Sakura Oogami. I would like to be your friend, in the case that you keep out of trouble.”

“Hall monitor? You’re more like a full-on security guard!” She laughed, “Eh! Whatever! I’ll try to keep outta trouble, but it’s not like I ever go looking for it! It just sort of finds me, you get this? Trouble just follows me around as some sorta separate whatchamacallit… entropy? Nah, entity, that’s what!”

“You annoy me.” Maizono’s creepy deadpan floated out from her corner again, and when Asahina looked over she was met with a spine-chilling glare and the butcher knife pointed in her direction again, “Don’t ever speak to me, and we might not be enemies. Maybe. If I can find it in me not to hate you anyway.” She sighed, “People like you… really piss me off. You’re a criminal. What right do you have to be so exuberant?”

“Hey!” Asahina was offended, “Just cause I’m in a gang doesn’t mean I automatically have to be the edgemaster six thousand, or some sort of grudge clone!”

“Mm. I guess not.” A smile cracked her face, and despite the fact that she had once been the sort of person who smiled for everyone, it didn’t seem right, “At least you’re just obnoxious. I probably won’t kill you for that. I only murder disgusting people who deserve it.”

“Jeeze…” The biker mumbled, turning back to the less frightening students, “What’s her damage, anyway? I didn’t even talk to her and she started being a big mean sourpuss!”

“Well, she is the Super High School Level Murderer.” Yasuhiro stepped forward, sighing, “I’d honestly be more put off if she continued to act like an idol after committing those crimes of hers. She may be cruel and nasty, but if she was still smiles and sunshine it would be even scarier.”

“Can you imagine? That’d be really no good.” Fukawa added in.

“Can you even speak correctly? I think maybe those ‘bad translations’ of your work may just be the best they could do.” Togami sneered again, “Take a damn grammar course, won’t you?”

“Y-yeah well…” She shrunk, as she always seemed to when he spoke, “I would! If this school was actually, you know, a school!”

“Ah, come on!” Someone else had arrived, “This room’s not a pool either? What the fuck! I heard that Hope’s Peak Academy had a pool! What a ripoff!”

“Oo-Oowada! That’s no way to greet our new classmates…!” Standing in the doorway was a guy wearing a wifebeater and swimming trunks, and beside him a girl who was wearing socks, but no shoes, “I’m sure there’s a pool somewhere… Uh! Anyway! Hello! I’m Chihiro Fujisaki, the Super High School Level Fortune Teller! And this is Mondo Oowada, he’s a Super-Swimmer!”

“Nice to meet you!” Naegi smiled at them, “Do you know each other?”

“Yeah. We went to the same middle school.” Mondo responded, giving a thumbs-up to the heir, “I remember they listed our middle schools on the website? I’m pretty sure Fujisaki and I aren’t the only ones who knew eachother ahead of time.”

“You’re right.” Maizono answered, “Naegi and I went to the same summer camp, actually.” She aimed her knife at Junko, “So I would prefer if you kept your hands off him, but who am I to lay claim to a human being anyhow? I’d be no better than those pigs. So do what you want, just don’t be rude to him, right?”

“Uh… right!” Junko nodded quickly, holding her hands up in front of herself, “Uh, Mukuro and I knew each other before coming here too! We’re sisters!”

“Hm, similarly…” Yasuhiro added, “Touko and I have never been in the same school, but we have known each other since childhood. As has Togami, towards both of us.”

“Yeah.” Maizono nodded, then stared at the group from through her hair, “We’re lucky, aren’t we? I’m sure that whoever put us here… could have made us forget that we ever knew each other…”

“Yeah.” Mondo agreed, “I probably would have freaked out if I didn’t run into Fujisaki in the hallway, and if I didn’t know her. She’s got my back.”

“Mhm!” The much smaller person agreed, before going over to one of the other tables in the entrance hall and pulling a deck of tarot cards out of her sweater, setting up a six-card spread. Mukuro was intrigued, but not intrigued enough to watch the result, because another person arrived moments later.


	5. Chapter 5

“Ishimaru Kiyotaka, Super High School Level Soldier, reporting for initation ceremonies!” The newcomer saluted with one hand as he held the door open with the other, “If I have arrived later than I should have, I apologize! I encountered an inexplicable inconvenience in the process of my arrival to Hope’s Peak!”

“Do not worry. There is no adult presence, and we all encountered that same inconvenience.” Sakura reassured him, but before she could thankl him, Asahina was standing in front of him in a battle stance.

“Hey!” She spoke harshly, “Soldier, eh? Well then, why don’t you fight me? Come on, put up your dukes! I’ve been itching for a friendly brawl!”

“I am not skilled in hand to hand combat!” He answered her, and she sighed, disappointed, “I apologize, delinquent, but I can’t fight you.”

“Aww.” She shook her head.

“Never fear, criminal damsel!” Another man walked in behind Ishimaru, “For I will do battle with you anytime you wish!”

“Uh.” She stared at him, then frowned, “I… dunno if that would work out too well. I’m more of a ‘anything goes in a fistfight’ type of girl, not a ‘standardized rules and fighting style of sumo wrestling’ girl. Sorry, uh…”

“Yamada. Hifumi Yamada. How is it you knew my talent, but not my name?”

“I did my research before coming here, ya big lug! I’m just really bad at remembering names, okay?” She rolled her eyes, “Besides, it isn’t like that’s important. I only need to know the names of people I wanna be friends with! You super-duper-don’t qualify!”

“I… That is rather rude, though I can’t say it was altogether unexpected.” Yamada sighed, making his way into the entrance hall, “Fifteen… we’re only missing one classmate, aren’t we? The website said that we would be a class of sixteen."

"I believe I would be that sixteenth student! I think. I don't think you counted me. Unless you forgot that grudge chick in the corner! Either way, I think we're all here!" Another guy's voice sounded from... inside the room? Everybody turned to look at him.

"You're..." Yasuhiro turned to him, smirking, "Yasuhiro Hagakure, right? The one whose first name is the same as my last?" He nodded.

"When did you even get here, buddy?" Junko questioned, tilting her head to the side, "Chihiro?" She redirected it, noticing that the man in question was trying to play solitaire using Fujisaki's tarot cards.

"I don't know. He's the Super High School Level Gambler... he just sort of showed up." She answered, staring intently at a crystal ball she had produced from just as mysterious source as the cards. Suddenly, she jumped back with a yelp.

Standing on the other side of the table, staring right back at her through the ball, was the scariest looking teddy bear any of them had ever seen, particularly Chihiro, who had to see it magnified. "Upupupu! Hey bastards! Welcome to Hope's Peak Academy!"

"What... what are you??" Chihiro addressed it fearfully.

"I am Monobear! Your headmaster. Now, let's get this over and done with. No questions allowed, okay? You have been put here for something called the high school life of mutual killings. What that means is... you kill each other. Simple as that. After a murder you get put on trial, and whoever is found guilty gets executed. No benefit to any of that, of course. I mean, let's get this out of the way right now. You are not leaving this place, plain and simple. The world outside is in no state to support you. You don't even have to kill anybody, technically! I will be distributing motives at a later date, but aside from those it's not like you have a reason to kill. In the gymnasium are your student ID cards. Please pick them up and read the rules on them. Buh-Bye!"

As suddenly as it had appeared, Monobear left. Everyone in the room was confused, of course, "What in the world was that? Like we're actually gonna kill each other, lame! What sort of a bear was that? Vaguely disruptive?" Asahina said this far too loudly.

"I dunno." Maizono answered softly, "But I just might, you know. If you don't stop shouting like that... nevermind. I won't. Sorry. You don't disgust me. But other people here... just might."

Mukuro had to wonder what exactly Maizono's criteria was for killing, "Hey. What exactly do you consider disgusting to be?"

"Eh?" She questioned, turning to look at her, "Oh, Ikusaba. I would say that a person becomes disgusting when... they harm someone I care about. When there is no reason at all that they should continue living. When a human being is no longer worth the effort it takes to breathe in their presence."

"So basically what you're saying is that we're all completely safe from you? Way to be intimidating." Fukawa laughed.

"Don't be so sure about that, Fukawa. Plenty of you have the potential to disgust me. I won't hesitate to cause you pain if you do."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's back by popular demand!

The collection of students stared at Maizono in shock, then turned to each other and frowned. Despite their insistence that no murders would occur between them, Maizono was an outlier. She was the only one among them who was really likely to kill, although given her track record, it wouldn’t be hard to catch her. Nonetheless, if Maizono did decide to attack somebody, their numbers would quickly drop to fourteen students, and that was still something generally unwanted.

“No matter what that bear told us, it’s unimportant!” Ishimaru was the first one to break the silence with a rather loud proclamation, “I declare myself our leader. It is not ego, but background which fuels this decision! As a soldier I was trained to live in a bunker in the case of worldwide fallout, therefore, I should be in charge of scheduling and ratio-” He stopped suddenly in his speech and pointed at Asahina, “Rationing. The act of dividing food in a specific way to avoid running out or allowing anyone to starve.”

“Eh?” She responded through a mouthful of croissant, lifting a finger to ask the others to wait a moment before she finished chewing and swallowed the pastry, “No, we don’t need to do that! Just because this is a world’s end shelter doesn’t mean we’re low on food. I went in the kitchen and it looks like there’s some sorta contraption to bring things in from the outside. When I took a croissant from the fridge a new one came down this chute right away! So there’s gotta be somebody taking care of us.”

“What...?” Hagakure questioned, walking up to the others and scratching his head, “Come on, I took a leave of absence from schooling for a couple years to go to LA! I’m already an adult, I don’t need anybody looking after me! And if somebody’s sending us food, is there really a fallout at all?”

“Damn!” Leon joined in, kicking at the floor in annoyance, “Geeze, guys, I know that we were briefed on this! Everything about this place got explained, I’m sure of it! I just can’t remember!” He groaned, clutching at his head, “Can somebody explain!?”

“Oh...” Junko muttered, pulling out her smartphone from her bra. All electronics (her 3DS, psvita, 3 other phones, 2 laptops, and tablet) had been taken away, but she correctly assumed that even the most nefarious of captors wouldn’t be brave enough to go fishing around in her bra for contraband, “Hm, this is weird. I can’t get a signal or anything but I can connect to a building network... but the internet isn’t working right on it. I think I can only get into local files...”

“Local files are better than nothing!” Leon immediately ran up to her side, peering at the screen, “Even the smallest of clues are useful in an investigation, after all!

“Whoa, too close, Sherlock!” Junko grumbled and pushed him away, stepping a bit closer to Mukuro as she continued looking through it, “A lot of this is just ~weird~ stuff. Like, files talking about how we’ll be executed if any of us commit a murder. Like that’ll happen! There’s a text file with a string of programming for... Monobear, but it’s all movement stuff, not any sort of speech script. That must be hidden better, I can try to find it on my own later though... aha!” She jumped in place, grinning at Mukuro before announcing her findings, “I found an explanation on the operation of the shelters!”

Immediately all eyes were on her; even Maizono’s interest had been piqued, and although she didn’t move in like the others, she did turn her head to watch them intently. Once Junko had this attention she cleared her throat and began to read aloud from the document she’d found.

“These shelters are designed for the purpose of carrying on the legacy of the country’s most promising youths in the event that the current terrorist threat of... it’s blanked out, so I’ll skip it... was to cause an infrastructure collapse throughout Japan. The threat of such a group spreading their efforts to other countries denies the option of sending the youths abroad; therefore, we have created fallout shelters which can withstand anything, even radiation in the event that the collapse is so great that it causes failure in power plants. Each shelter has control over the next one in the line. The shelters are designed to become self sufficient; once there is a surplus of resources, a button may be pressed to awaken the next set of students, to whom your surplus shall be sent. Eventually, the shelters will be combined into one larger living space as soon as individual groups grow accustomed to living together in these quarters. With any luck, the talented youth’s of Hope’s Peak Academy will be able to create their own community which will be of a higher quality than current civilization,” Junko read it off.

“Well, that’s not the worst that could happen,” Naegi shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck and yawning, “If the world’s ended, this is actually a really smart way to go about preserving the human race. The best of the best, in the best possible facilities...”

“There’s a little more,” Junko added, “It says that the doors to the outside will be opened as soon as a third generation child reaches the age of ten, assuming that the world will be suitable for rehabilitation at that point.”

“What in the world is that supposed to mean!?” Yasuhiro cut in, “Do they expect us to simply breed without question, only because we are potentially the last remaining humans?”

“I don’t _think_ so...” Junko shrugged as she put her phone in sleep mode and returned it to its home within her cleavage, “There are at least two other shelters, probably. I think it’s safe to say that somebody between all of us will end up having children eventually? Probably? I mean, as long as people agree to help with the kid I don’t mind taking one for the team?”

“Such conduct is inappropriate for a school... however...” Oogami sighed, crossing her arms, “It is becoming increasingly clear that this isn’t much of a school after all, isn’t it? There are classrooms, but those are likely for the purpose of continuing to educate ourselves and our eventual children rather than for the purpose of making this building out to be a school. I believe the best course of action would be to explore our shelter and determine if it can indeed be made into a home.”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Mukuro finally spoke again, but far too softly for anybody to hear, so she didn’t mind so much when Fukawa unknowingly parroted her words.

“Touko and I will investigate the top floor of the building, if that is all right?” Yasuhiro spoke, putting a hand on the shoulder of her... rival? It was really hard to tell if she and Fukawa were friends or enemies, “I haven’t the faintest clue of how long we’ve been sleeping, but I do know that I need to stretch my legs and stairs are just the way to do so.”

“A fitting assessment, madam!” Ishimaru noted, “So I shall do the same in a trip to the second highest floor myself!”

“I’ll be on any floor,” Mondo noted, “I just really want to find a pool. Chihiro? You coming with me?” He called out, and Chihiro nodded as she gathered the tarot cards and tucked them back into the pockets in her skirt before running up to Mondo and falling into step as the search began.

“I will follow Ishimaru,” Oogami said simply, “For similar reasons.”

“Second floor,” Yamada said as he was already leaving.

“Third I guess?” Leon proclaimed for himself before turning to the corner, “Maizono? Would you like to accompany me?”

“Me? Accompany you?” She questioned, her voice much smaller and not so threatening as before; she brushed her hair from her face a bit and gave Leon a small smile, “I’d like that,” And with that, the murderer and detective were gone together to the building’s third floor, an odd but somehow fitting pair.

“Augh, I just wanna hang out here and have some snacks... do we really all need to be useful?” Asahina questioned, and Hagakura approached her to show his solidarity in that sentiment. Naegi just shrugged in response.

“I guess that’s fine. I’m going to take a look around on this floor, if anybody wants to come with me, I think we have enough people searching that a few can stay behind though,” Something about his simple words seemed incredibly charismatic; he was clearly far from ‘just rich’ in the reasons he was the best of the best heirs, “Does anybody know where Togami went? I don’t see him here.”

“He left to follow Fukawa and Yasuhiro,” Kirigiri noted as she stepped forward, adjusting the sun hat she wore in the same soft pastel yellow as her dress, bangles on her wrist clacking as she lifted her arm, “I’ll go with you, though,” and Naegi nodded, that pair also taking off, exuding a great air of style between the two of them.

“Guess that just leaves you and me, Mukuro,” Junko slung an arm around her sister, grinning, “What we do next, I’ll leave up to you, kiddo!”


	7. Chapter 7

“Um, well, I’d kind of just like to get to know the people we’re going to be living with, but...” Mukuro frowned, shifting her hands between each other and looking down at the floor, “Everyone’s already scattered...”

“Eh? That’s no problem! We’ll just find them!” Junko noted, then gestured to Asahina and Hagakure coming out from the bridging door between the cafeteria and entrance hall, arms loaded with snacks, “Starting with the food crew! Could we get some of that, you two?” Junko shouted out to them, running over and dragging Mukuro by her wrist along with her.

Mukuro just hid her face in secondhand embarrassment at her sister’s forward approach, but the victims of it didn’t seem to find it strange at all, “Oh? Yeah, sure, of course!” Asahina nodded, holding her arms out, “I grabbed more than I could ever eat myself, so help yourself! I just wish there were some convenience store type snacks instead of just these pastries... whoever’s up in that other shelter sure is a great cook, but you know, after such a weird experience I just can’t relax without some good brown sugar candies... or matcha... ooh, or mochi! I could really go for some red bean mochi right now. Or red bean paste at all...”

“Aw, man, now you’re making me want it too! Red bean paste would taste great on these buns!” Hagakure whined, holding his own armful of snacks out to Mukuro, who had been peeking from behind her fingers which still hid her face. With the snacks offered, she gingerly took a sugar cookie and took a tiny bite.

“Well, maybe when we’re able to start gardening we could grow red beans? Junko and I mostly take care of ourselves at home so I know how to make red bean paste... it’s Junko’s favorite...” Mukuro was practically whispering, but she smiled a bit as she spoke of her life with her sister. It was nice to remember the things she did for Junko, it made her feel less guilty for depending on her so often, “I’m sure there are beans to plant, I can only imagine we have options for crops...”

“Whoa, yeah!” Junko nodded, chomping down on the raspberry danish she’d grabbed, “I mean, the other group obviously has wheat, and fruit! That’s a great idea, Mukuro!” She wiped her mouth then grinned and looked to Asahina and Hagakure once more, “Isn’t my little sister so cool? Don’t underestimate her just because her talent is good luck, that doesn’t mean it’s all she’s good at!”

Mukuro nodded sheepishly, looking away as Asahina spoke again, “Hell yeah! That’s so useful! I don’t have any idea what I can really do here... I may be the best motorcyclist around, but how’s that gonna factor in to surviving at the end of the world anyway?”

“Yeah... same here...” Hagakure groaned, leaning over and letting one of his pastries fall onto the ground, which Junko grabbed quickly while whispering ‘5 second rule’, “I’m a gambler. All I know how to do is keep a poker face and time my slot pulls! Just because we’re promising youths in certain skills doesn’t mean we’re worth anything in the grand scheme of things... both of you have already been helpful, though...”

“Huh? Come on, I’m sure there’s other things you’re good at!” Junko insisted, eating the floor pastry with gusto, “And I mean, if nothing else, anybody can help with gardening! Pulling weeds, watering plants, harvesting them, it’s not really that difficult! It’s not really a matter of our skills helping the world. It’s more... well, good genetics maybe? We’re lauded as the most skilled young people in Japan, it only makes sense we’d be the ones best suited to fix a post-apocalyptic world, right?”

“Still...” Hagakure sighed, “Oh, well. Maybe there’s a rec room and my purpose here is to help keep people sane by making sure we’re having fun sometimes? I don’t know,” He shrugged, dropping whatever other pastries he hadn’t finished. Junko grabbed them again, and Mukuro helped this time despite having no intention of eat the floor pastries herself. Okay, maybe one. Was this steamed bun still warm? Okay, just this one.

“I’m sure it’ll all be fine! Except for that threatening bear that came and told us that the punishment for murder is death, I really think we’re going to do all right here!” Junko assured them, jumping in the air a bit as she continued eating her floor pastries, “Ohhh~! I can’t wait to meet whoever made these!”

“Me too...” Mukuro nodded as she spoke just as quietly as ever, “I... do like meeting new people, even if I’m not very good at it...”

“Seem just fine at it to me,” Ashina shrugged, giving her an odd, somewhat pouty look, “Minute I saw you I knew I wanted to be friends with you! You even shook my hand even though saliva is disgusting! That means that you’ve got real mettle to you! The timid exterior can’t fool me, you’re a real trooper!”

“Er... thanks,” Mukuro nodded, “Even if it is a weird situation, it’s nice to meet you both. I do hope that we can all be friends and that nobody dies... do you have any idea what that could possibly be about...?”

“Uhh,” Hagakure started, then frowned, “When I was in LA I watched an American movie about people being dropped in a self-sufficient camp connected to a maze as some sort of natural selection experiment?”

“I don’t think it’s anything like that, Hagakure,” Asahina spoke flatly, the closest to deadpan she’d gotten since her arrival, though she soon perked back up, “I bet somebody just wants to sabotage our survival effort. Probably the same group that messed up the world. Hey, do you think we could send a message back up that food chute? I want to ask SHSL baker if they can make donuts. Hagakure talking about America reminded me that they’re my favorite!”

“Well, good luck with that!” Junko nodded, then put a guiding hand against Mukuro’s back, arms now emptied of floor pastries. She’d eaten them all. Despite her slim figure, she could really put away snacks; mostly because all of her eating came in binges, with long fasts in between, “We’re gonna take a look around now and get to know some of the others!”

“Oh, all right!” Asahina nodded, then flashed them a thumbs-up, “You better have fun, Ikusaba! If you don’t, I’ll beat you up! How’s that for motivation to have a good time?”

“Heh...” Mukuro gave a nervous chuckle, but her smile was genuine as she went away with her sister to meet with others.


	8. Chapter 8

“Oh, it’s you! Hi again!” Junko called out to Naegi, “Super High School Level Heir to my heart~!” Once more Mukuro was embarrassed by Junko’s behavior, but once more it was clear that she was only teasing, especially in Naegi’s glimmering reaction. Mukuro was always frightened and put off by Junko’s friendliness with people as a result of her own shyness, but it always seemed to work out for the better, “And the super stylish Kyoko Kirigiri, too? I must be blessed! The top guy and top girl in the school popularity polls, in one hallway, alone with me and my cool sister! What a dream come true!”

“School popularity polls?” Kirigiri questioned, stepping a bit closer and narrowing her eyes, “What, exactly, is that supposed to mean anyway?” She didn’t sound aggressive, only confused in a cool and collected way.

“Well, okay, there aren’t any popularity polls yet, but I’m calling it now that you two would win,” Junko shrugged, “At least, Naegi is a definite win for the boys unless the other girls here secretly like beefcakes or eyebrows. Byakuya Togami is attractive, but the poll is for datability, and he’s too abrasive! The only other boy who even stands the tiniest chance is Leon, I think. Kirigiri’s definitely triumphing over our resident grudge-girl, and I believe that Yasuhiro and Fukawa are a bit too wrapped up in fighting with each other, and Asahina’s fun but violent! Oogami won’t win any beauty pageants either, so the girls are a real toss-up between the remaining four... you, for your glamorous style and flair. Me, for my cute appearance and bubbly personality. Chihiro, for the moe-lovers, or Mukuro here for boys who like a sweet, and more traditionally Japanese girl...”

“I feel like you somehow went off on a tangent there,” Kirigiri chuckled gracefully, raising her slender fingers to cover her mouth a bit as she did so. One of the bangles on her wrist caught Mukuro’s eye.

“Hm?” Junko questioned, waving one hand dismissively, “Aw, maybe? But it would be totally fun! We could hold a school popularity poll and then we’d know what sort of tastes the boys here have...” She giggled, holding a hand over her mouth as well but in a much more :3c way that Kirigiri’s grace, “And when the walls come down we can let the other girls in on it too! Why, I wouldn’t be shocked at all if the other shelters are doing exactly the same thing... how about it, you two? Wanna help me set up a popularity poll?”

“Well, it would help us to find some normality. High schools do that a lot, don’t they?” Naegi questioned, crossing his arms, “So we can at least pretend we’re living like normal students instead of fallout survivors.”

“Oh, Makoto does have a point,” Kirigiri nodded, standing next to him with her arms crossed as well. It looked almost as if the two of them were posing for a magazine even while just standing there like normal people, “In that case, of course I will. It does sound like it may be interesting! And we need something fun if we are going to avoid cabin fever in here for so long...”

“Great!” Junko pumped her fist in the air, then Mukuro peered out cautiously from behind her.

“Mm, Kirigiri?” She questioned soft and with hesitation. Kirigiri turned and made a soft noise of acknowledgement, so she continued, “That bangle, on your wrist, um, it looks like... is that toroumarou?”

“Oh, yes, it is,” Kirigiri nodded, lifting her wrist again to examine it, “I’m surprised that you recognized it. Not many people have seen Gakkou Gurashi...”

“Wait, what!?” Junko spun 360 degrees in her excitement, “Good spot, Mukuro! Ah! Kirigiri, Mukuro and I watched Gakkou Gurashi together just a few weeks ago and we cried. So. Much. I can’t believe a super stylish model like you watched something like that!”

“Even celebrities need hobbies,” Kirigiri shrugged, smiling a bit, “I wonder, Junko, if you would be able to do something? We found a media room, however, it doesn’t seem like there’s any way to play any media there. If you could get it working, we could have some sort of movie night, possibly?”

“Hm? Yeah, of course! Let me check something,” She pulled her phone out again, “Whoa, nice! I can’t get onto social media or search engines or anything, and the comment section is blocked off, but it looks like streaming websites still work in this building! Sweet!”

“Oh, wonderful! If you could connect a computer of some sort, or even that phone, then we could continue our efforts to make everyone’s stay here an enjoyable one...” Kirigiri nodded, “Oh, isn’t this silly? The four of us are behaving just like a student council, trying to better the lives of the student body! Well, Ikusaba, have you any movie suggestions? I trust your taste.”

“Me?” Mukuro questioned, instinctively taking a step backwards and shaking her head, “Oh, oh no, I couldn’t.”

“Come on, Mukuro! You definitely can! You’re always the one who picks out what we watch and it’s great almost every time! The only bust was Charlotte, but that one had a really good first episode so I don’t blame you!” Junko insisted, latching onto her sister’s arm.

“Ah, er, well,” She froze, then relaxed a bit and gave a sheepish smile, “I can write up a list of my favorites. If you need a movie suggestion more quickly, though, I’d say that “Wake Up, Girls!” is a fun and harmless movie. It’s about idols... it’s a prequel to an anime series, too.”

“Wake up girls it is,” Naegi nodded, giving her a thumbs-up, “Heh, Kirigiri is right. We are being an awful lot like a student council, aren’t we?”

“Mm, I think it’s nice though,” Kirigiri nodded, “I really would like to make this a nicer place for everybody, and I’m glad the three of you feel the same way. How silly of that bear, to suggest such a kind and lovely group of people would possibly murder each other...”

“Yeah,” Naegi agreed, “It’s ridiculous. As long as we keep a positive outlook we’ll be completely fine.”

“Speaking of, can you point me towards the media room? I want to try and get things set up in there!” Junko asked, and received directions. As soon as she knew where to go, she flounced off, and Mukuro followed without protest.


	9. Chapter 9

“All right, let’s take a look…” Junko muttered, crouching down in front of the stacks underneath the large screen in the media room. Its layout was simple; one large screen with three short rows of comfortable seats, then a few rows of computers entirely built into the desks, with nothing showing but the monitor and a disk drive. Luckily, that wasn’t what Junko was concerned with; it was these stacks connected to the large screen, which, upon closer inspection, consisted of three different HDMI settings when she turned the tv and all three devices on. One was a game console, one a dvd player, and one a simple hard drive with a usb port. It wasn’t connected to the internet, but she could use the charge cable to connect her phone.

Luckily, those hadn’t been stolen from her luggage, so unless she managed to break all fifty of them, her phone would remain in use. It didn’t take her long at all to get this setup to function properly, and soon enough she was streaming a youtube video to the screen. Mukuro wrinkled her nose as she listened to it, giving her sister a strange look.

“What?” Junko shrugged, twirling around a bit to the sounds of heavy metal mixed with tinny voices, “Afterschool Navigators by NicoRinPana. It’s quality music! Besides, I needed something to prove I could get this thing working, and what better than idol metal? I wish they’d done more of this…” She froze where she stood and frowned, “Oh, man. If the world experienced total fallout, then that means… Love Live Sunshine…” She hesitated, then immediately pulled up an anime streaming site on her phone.

“Aha!” She jumped forward, closer to the screen, “They must have put us in here before the fallout actually happened or something! Look at this! There’s a whole bunch of things which aired a year later than when we started at Hope’s Peak and got put here instead…” She hesitated, then turned around and gave her sister an odd look, “But, don’t you think it’s strange that we don’t remember doing anything at Hope’s Peak Academy… at all? You’d think they would at least tell us instead of just drugging us and sticking us in here right off the bat…”

“Maybe we had our memories erased?” Mukuro wondered out loud in a droll tone, as if she didn’t really believe that could be the case.

“Omg!” Junko hopped in place, “You’re a genius! I bet that whoever sabotaged the shelter effort got rid of all our memories of Hope’s Peak to make us more incompetent! And also, like, not know each other as well I guess? If they want us to submit to cabin fever and commit murders that would be a sensible thing to do…”

“I wouldn’t really call ways to make us kill each other sensible in any context…” Mukuro muttered, sitting down at one of the computers just to have a seat.

“Well I mean, that’s what I’d do, if I was doing something like this. Which, like, I wouldn’t do! But don’t you ever think about how you’d commit a murder, even if you never would? It’s like that. I’m just thinking about how I’d go about this same sort of thing…”

“Well, I don’t find it funny,” Mukuro mumbled, “I don’t like the idea that somebody messed with my mind… How could I trust anyone, knowing that?”

“I mean…” Junko hesitated, “Didn’t everyone we met seem a little familiar? So I don’t think that we can have fake memories… or even lose them entirely. I’m sure that we’ll remember eventually! There’s nothing to worry about. I have faith that nobody is going to kill anyone… but I am suspicious of whoever put us here… Come on, Mukuro. I want to find out how much this mastermind really knows about us.”

“Huh? How can you find that out?” Mukuro asked as she was willingly dragged along to another hallway; the dorm hallway, to be specific.

“It’s simple, duh. You can be pretty dumb sometimes, sis,” Junko rolled her eyes as she kept running down the hall, skidding to a stop when she spotted a door with her name on it. Her name, and Mukuro’s too, “See this nameplate? Whoever put us here definitely met us more than once. An ignorant saboteur or just the faculty wouldn’t have realized that we cannot under any circumstances be separated… the rooms for the academy were two to a dorm, so they couldn’t have known based on that. Either the saboteur or the person in charge of the shelter knows us very well, Mukuro…”

“Oh…” She nodded slowly, staring at the door, “Why would a saboteur bother keeping us together though, even if they knew? Wouldn’t they want to make us as miserable as possible, so that murders would happen…?”

“Well, weirdly enough, I think this might be the work of the saboteur after all. The documents I found for the shelter detail the room assignments as being completely different, and don’t have us together at all. Maybe there’s more to this than just wanting us to give in to the pressure of an enclosed space…”

“Maybe,” Mukuro frowned, looking away, “But that doesn’t seem likely. I don’t understand why somebody who wants us to murder each other would bother making us comfortable… or even keep all the shelter’s facilities open to us…”

“About that,” Junko grabbed Mukuro’s wrist once more and pulled her over to the stairs, then held her phone out again and tapped it, sending bars down to the floor, then tapped again, bringing them back up, “They did. Close off the different floors, I mean… but everyone was so convinced they could explore other floors, that I went digging and hacked in a command to get all of these open. Whoever did this is probably pulling out their hair right now over the unfair advantage I’ve given us…”

“An advantage over the temptation to kill?” Mukuro asked, staring up the stairs.

“But of course,” Junko nodded slowly, “Monobear said so,” And with that, she tapped her phone a few more times before that bear’s voice came wafting out of her speaker, a recorded message which spoke of a trial being complete and another floor of the building being opened up to them.

“Oh… Are you sure that we won’t get in trouble for this?” Mukuro questioned, and Junko just smiled back at her.

“I listened to every clip titled about rulebreaking. If Monobear doesn’t have a line for it, then it can’t very well reprimand us, and it doesn’t,” Junko explained, starting to walk up the stairs to the second floor, “Come on, Mukuro. Your cool sister broke the killing game. Aren’t you proud of me?”


	10. Chapter 10

“Oh! Enoshima, Ikusaba!” Somebody greeted the pair as soon as they got up onto the second floor, “Nice to see you! Guess what!” A second of awareness revealed that somebody to be Chihiro.

“Did you find something out on this floor?” Mukuro asked, clasping her hands together and looking around the hallway.

“Well, I’m out here because I’m still investigating, but Mondo’s pretty happy! Turns out that there’s a pool here on the second floor, isn’t that just great?” Chihiro questioned, soft smile on her face as she approached Mukuro, “Ikusaba, don’t you think this is a nice place?”

“Huh?” Mukuro questioned, straightening up a bit, “Hm, I guess so? It’s nice enough anyway, but why are you asking my opinion? I think everyone’s of the general opinion that this is at the very least a good shelter...”

“The cards told me that you are somebody precious, somebody weak...” Chihiro mumbled, then froze and waved her hands in front of herself, shaking her head, “Ah! I mean. Sorry! That came out wrong. That was the literal translation, more or less... It’s just, fortune says you should be protected and cared for! That’s what I meant, I’m sorry!”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Mukuro shook her head, releasing her clasped hands to shove them in the pockets of her sweatshirt and give a sheepish smile, “I know all that already. That’s why I need to stay around Junko, after all. The only thing I have going for me is my good luck... and it really is lucky that I have my sister, because anytime bad things do happen to me, she’s here to help...”

“Hm? Oh, well, Enoshima,” Chihiro turned to her and made an odd little noise as she put a hand on Junko’s shoulder, “That’s something you won’t need to do alone anymore. I’d like to look out for Ikusaba as well, if that’s all right? I am afraid I may offend her again with this statement, but fortune tells that she’s much like a precious baby bird...”

“I guess?” Junko shrugged, then nodded, “I mean, yeah! The more people looking out for my cute little sister the better, after all! Not that I have any problems doing it by myself, but what if I screw up? Yeah! You really gotta help me protect the baby bird!”

“I understand that I’m not strong, but do you really have to call me a baby?” Mukuro mumbled, trying not to speak loudly enough that she’d actually be heard. Annoyed as she was, she’d rather avoid confrontation nonetheless.

“Hm? Oh, I’m sorry!” Chihiro shook her head, frowning, “Oh, ohh, the cards really are so fickle! They make me say rude things all the time! Oh fates, why must you be so?? If my fate is to watch over Ikusaba, may you at least allow me not to upset her when trying?”

“Heheh...” Another voice joined in, and the three turned to see Yamada standing there, “Who would have thought the tiny fortune-teller would be the older sister type? Ikusaba, could you call her Chihiro-neesan? For me?”

“...No, I don’t think she can,” Junko frowned, cocking her hands on her hips and leaning forward to give Yamada the stink eye, “Mukuro is the oldest person in this room right now! Plus, I’ve heard about your rotten reputation. The only wrestling fights you ever watch other than your own are between girls! That’s pretty creepy!”

“Oh, um,” Chihiro spoke again, “I saw Fukawa earlier and she told me that Yamada’s been to some of her doujin signings. Enoshima, I think that he’s just a harmless yuri enthusiast...”

“Harmless or no, I won’t allow him to turn my cute little sister into a pawn in his insidious lust!” Junko shouted, pointing at Yamada, who flushed in embarrassment and couldn’t muster a response.

“...Enoshima, didn’t you just say that Ikusaba is the oldest one in this room?” Chihiro questioned.

“Well, yes. She’s technically the older twin, but I’m so much more of a big sister than she is!” Junko defended her position, turning her head to the side, “Besides, it’s only a few minutes difference, so it’s not like it really matters which of us was technically born first...”

“So... Ikusaba... could you call her Junko-neesan?” Yamada asked, continuing to press the issue.

“Oi,” Yamada was interrupted, then literally lifted off the ground by the scruff of his neck. Quite a feat. The lifter was, of course, Mondo Oowada, “Hey, just because I’m a swimmer doesn’t mean I skip arm day. What sort of things, exactly, are you asking these respectable young ladies to do, huh!?”  
“Er, uh, nothing unsavory!” Yamada protested, kicking his legs in the air, “I swear! It’s not like I asked them to take their clothes off or anything! Just what you heard! Innocent things! Innocent, I swear!”

“Uh huh, yeah. Whatever,” Mondo rolled his eyes, dropping the guy before turning to the girls, “So, you heard there’s a pool, right? Isn’t that great? I can keep in shape while surviving fallout! And we could all have a pool party!”

“You sure you don’t just want to see us cute girls in swimsuits?” Junko questioned, winking at him, though she couldn’t have expected his reaction.

“Of COURSE not!!” Mondo yelled, far louder than Junko’s earlier melodrama, and clenched his fists, “I’m not like this heathen! I’m not! I am a good and decent man!”

“Now, now,” Chihiro interrupted his yelling in a mild and quiet voice, petting his arm, “Enoshima was only making a joke...”

“Shit...” Mondo muttered, turning to Chihiro and patting her head a bit, “Did I upset you, Chihiro? I’m sorry.”

“Oh, it’s all right. Be glad I was here to calm you down,” She giggled a bit, “You do have quite the temper, don’t you? I’d hate to see if you and Asahina got in a fight with each other!”

“Chihiro...” He groaned softly, and Mukuro couldn’t help but wonder if there was something else to their conversation that she wasn’t picking up on; it was that sort of groan, one of those ‘let’s not bring up the past’ groans, though Mukuro was certain he and Asahina hadn’t met before today. She wouldn’t ask, however. It wasn’t her place to do so.

“Hm, awkward!” Junko laughed, then put an arm around Mukuro’s shoulders, “Sounds like you’ve got some baggage between you? We’ll go upstairs and leave you be!”

Mukuro nodded in agreement. Leave it to Junko to come up with an escape plan for such an odd social situation. What would she ever do without her reliable, 5 minutes younger but basically older sister?


	11. Chapter 11

One more set of stairs, one more set of people to talk to. Mukuro was actually rather glad that everybody had scattered this way; she was quite happy to be able to become acquainted with a few people at a time, rather than trying to speak as a full group. That had been... rather hectic. Of course, she knew they’d have to do it again at some point, but it was still nice to at least get to know everyone a little better individually.

Mukuro remembered that Leon had invited Maizono to the third floor with him, but only saw the former when she first got up the stairs, looking at him a bit quizzically, “Where is... Maizono? Didn’t she come up here with you?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. Sayaka, why don’t you say hi to Ikusaba and Enoshima?” Leon stepped to the side, revealing that Maizono had been hiding being him.

“Sayaka?” Junko questioned as she came up behind Mukuro, “Since when are you two on first name basis, huh?”

“Oh, well,” Maizono shifted her feet a bit, staring down at the floor, “You two could call me Sayaka too, if you wanted, uhm...” She trailed off, then lifted her head and gave a faint smile from behind the curtains of hair, “After all, I trust you. Mukuro, Junko...” She tilted her head to the side and closed her visible eye, looking almost like an idol again but for the hair in her face and the eyepatch, “Kuwata too, and a few others, maybe... but there are definitely people here that I don’t trust at all.”

“Are you... okay?” Junko questioned, raising an eyebrow, “Any particular reason you trust us as opposed to the other half of the class?”

“Hmm,” She turned to the side, raising a finger to her lips, “I’m not sure. I just feel like... I can trust you. Or, well, not exactly... it’s not like I trust you the way I’d trust my best friends, but I think that I don’t need to make you afraid of me. Sorry if I scared you earlier, by the way, but I had to keep it up in front of the others...”

“I’m just wondering how exactly there’s such a difference between your behaviors...” Mukuro asked, resting her chin on her hand, “But, I don’t think you need to be afraid. Everybody here seems trustworthy, if a bit odd at times...”

“I’m an idol, Mukuro,” She deadpanned, but then returned to a soft and cheery demeanor, “I have to be able to act well! I want people who might want to hurt me to think otherwise. I don’t want to be executed if I have to kill anybody in self-defense, after all... so I’d be better off making sure nobody attacks me.”

“Still, I’m having trouble believing this happiness you’re showing is genuine...” Junko chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck, “After that grudge-girl performance down in the cafeteria.”

“Acting from experience,” She shrugged a bit, “All that time I was smiling as an idol, that was how I really felt. It’s not so hard to remember that feeling, of wanting everyone and everything to just... stop, to die. But I assure you, this is how I really am now! I’m scared, but I’ve always been a coward... and worried that I scared you when you weren’t the ones I wanted to frighten... but otherwise, I have no reason to be sad. I’m sure my friends survived the fallout... and everyone that ever hurt me is dead!”

“She’s still not completely nonfrightening,” Leon added in, chuckling, “But, I really didn’t think the way she was acting earlier was the truth, so I asked her to come up here with me. As a detective, I have to be able to tell when people are lying or putting on a false personality... So I got worried about her.”

“Which was really nice of you,” She turned to him, looking like she was trying to make doe eyes, “I was really touched by that, Kuwata! It means a lot to me, that you’d get worried and want to know more about me...”

“It’s nothing, really,” Leon shrugged, looking at the other two and narrowing his eyes, “Strangely, I feel almost like... the four of us were friends before. That can’t be, though. I never met you before today, yet, it feels completely natural to call her Sayaka.”

Maizono turned around to address all three others in the room, “ Oh, that’s right! He’s right. If I’m acting strange, I’m sorry, but I really just feel the same way. Like we were friends before... and it would mean the world to me if we could be friends again. But, of course, I understand if you don’t want to...”

“No, that’s all right,” Mukuro nodded, offering Maizono a smile, “I think so too, somehow... Or at least, I’d like to try being your friend. You seem like you could use them. Not to be mean or anything, just, you’ve been through a lot in your life...”

“Yeah, a lot that was totally broadcast all over media,” Maizono flatlined her voice again, crossing her arms, “Like the whole world needs to be privy to my issues...”

“Besides!” Junko interrupted with enthusiasm, “You’re really protective of your friends, right? So who wouldn’t wanna be your friend if given the opportunity? Everybody deserves to have at least one friend who would kill for them! I’ll be yours if you’ll be mine!”

“Junko!” Mukuro reprimanded her, “No killing!”

“Well obviously not anywhere with such undeniable capital punishment, I’m not stupid,” Junko rolled her eyes, “But like, if we ever leave and go out and turns out the world is more populated than we thought? Totally. I’d lay down the life of some rando for any of my friends, any day, any time!”

“A programmer like you? I never would have thought it,” Maizono giggled, covering her mouth with a knife, because of course she was still holding one.

“Hey, don’t tell me these things, or else I might have to make an arrest!” Leon put a hand on his hip, his tone somewhere between serious and joking, “I really mean it! The fact that we’re friends won’t sway me. I’ve put away family, girlfriends, and inexplicable unsolicited combinations of those without any qualms!”

“Combinations...?” Mukuro asked, confused by that statement. She knew of course, of harem animes and imouto romances which both operated on tropes of relationships between family members, but she’d never heard of such a thing happening in reality.

“My cousin’s in love with me,” He shrugged, “Nothing really on my part, but she tried to use it against me when I busted her for stealing a classmate’s backpack back in middle school. Luckily, my stone cold gumshoe demeaor kept the witch at bay, and she hasn’t stolen anything since. Least of all my heart, as she’d like to think.”

At this story, Maizono seemed to be stifling laughter, and Leon noticed, immediately turning to chew her out. After about five minutes of the two of them just bouncing insults off each other playfully, Junko slowly put a hand on Mukuro’s back to guide her up the next set of stairs.


	12. Chapter 12

“Never, absolutely not,” Was the first thing that Mukuro heard upon her arrival to the fourth floor, and couldn’t help but feel like something about that statement was an ill-placed reference to another work of fiction that nobody reading this would have read. In any case, that fact was meta and irrelevant.

The one saying this, however, was relevant; Sakura Oogami, to be precise, and she was speaking to Kiyotaka Ishimaru, who appeared to have been repeatedly asking her something. Mukuro didn’t make her presence known in the hopes of hearing what the argument was about.

“Oogami, it is imperative that we are capable of defending ourselves in the event that something, or somebody such as Maizono, happens to go sour!” Ishimaru continued protesting, trying to jump up and pull a pallette knife out of Oogami’s hand, which she was holding up above his reach.

“Never. Absolutely not,” She delivered the line once more, turning her head to the side and crossing one arm over her chest, though keeping the other in the air.

“Hey sluts,” Junko strode in nonchalantly, standing right between the two of them, “What’s going on here, huh? Fighting already? Come onnnn. That’s shitty.”

“We are not fighting! Merely having a disagreement over my idea that everyone should be armed with items from the art room which Leon and Maizono uncovered on the third floor,” Ishimaru explained, groaning, “I understand that Oogami wishes to maintain a school-like safety environment, but this is a fallout shelter, and therefore, my expertise! And I say that everyone should be armed in the case of somebody losing their mind, or outsiders invading.”

“And I say that giving people weapons is exactly the opposite of the normalcy we require to avoid losing our minds. In addition, I believe the advent of outsiders would be entirely unlikely, given the security of this building and probability that the outside world is completely destroyed...” Oogami explained herself, then glared at Junko, “And I’ll have to ask you, Enoshima, to please watch your language.”

“Yeah, yeah, super lame?” She acted out an overexaggerated yawn, only for it to turn into a real yawn midway through.

“Oh, are you tired? Now that I see you yawning, it comes to my attention that I’m actually quite exhausted...” Oogami nodded slowly, closing her eyes and dropping her arm, though Ishimaru didn’t try to steal the pallette knife this time.

“Hm... I am used to suppressing exhaustion for the purpose of missions, so I didn’t notice, but it seems you are correct...” He agreed, “And as it stands, we don’t have any way to know the time, either...”

“Huh? Yeah we do,” Junko pulled her phone out one more time and stuck her tongue out as she held it up, revealing the screen read 4:00 PM, “Too early to sleep, but we’re probably all too tired to make serious decisions about how to run this place. Arguing with each other is probably just what the saboteur wants, too...”

“Yeah, you should stop,” Mukuro joined in, holding her hands close to her chest and glancing away at a far wall, “We need to all be friends. We have to survive... shouldn’t you both understand that good relations with people are just as important as general safety...?”

“Hmm,” Ishimaru looked away, crossing his arms in shame, and Oogami did similarly.

“See?” Mukuro noted, lifting a finger to her own chin and pondering, “I think that I’ll cook dinner tonight. I’ll tell everyone upstairs, then tell the others on my way back down... then send Junko to tell people when it’s ready. If we all have a nice meal together then get a good night’s sleep, we’ll all start off on the right foot, I think...”

“Look at that! Another genius idea from my cute sister!” Junko beamed, throwing a proud arm around Mukuro and petting her hair, “You’re just full of those today, Mukuro! I’m starting to think that you’re the real Super High School Student, and I’m just tagging along...”

“Well, we’re both Super High School Students,” Mukuro shrugged, “You’ve done a lot more than me. Unless you’d rather I didn’t mention your accomplishments, for whatever reason you may have stopped being an attention whore.”

“Oh, okay, you’re right,” Junko sighed, “I _am_ brilliant too, and I do love when people notice, but... well, I get enough of that from the fact I have a phone! They don’t need to know what else I accomplished,” She moved her arms away from Mukuro and twirled around a bit, “I don’t want to seem too amazing,” She giggled, winking at Ishimaru and Oogami, “I won’t even tell you two! Now, mystery is my allure~!”

“Well, I will not deny that Ikusaba’s idea is a wonderful one. Having a good meal and a good sleep is a wonderful thing no matter the situation... and, she’s correct that maintaining high morale and interpersonal relationships will only help to keep us safe.”

“This is correct. I was being foolish,” Ishimaru groaned, stepping backwards to lean against the wall, “Despite my military background, perhaps I am not suited for leadership in this situation. I know of drills and combat, not of high school students and entertainment...”

“But if not you, who would lead?” Oogami questioned, “I do not make rules, I only enforce them. That is what I excel in, none else...”

“What about Mukuro?” Junko asked, coming up behind said girl and grabbing onto her shoulders, giving Ishimaru and Oogami a big-eyed, cutesy look, “You saw how good her ideas are~! And she’s smart, and clever, and good at making friends, and cute! She’s the best sister ever so I bet she’d be the best leader ever!” Junko chuckled, dropping her voice down, “That is, if she could learn to talk a bit louder...”

“This is indeed a fitting idea,” Oogami nodded, “Assuming that we do need a leader. I rather believe that a committee of leadership figures may be a more proper idea, however. She would not need to speak louder if she had you as her voice, Enoshima.”

“Oh. My. God,” Junko froze, seeming to vibrate in her excitement moments later, “What if we formed a student council? Me and Mukuro, and Kirigiri, and Naegi! That would be a perfect council! Mukuro can be president and Kirigiri can be vice president, Naegi can be treasurer, and I’ll be the secretary!”

“Though I am not well acquainted with any of you, that does sound rather like a fitting group,” Ishimaru noted, “However... as an entire fourth of our class, I am unsure if it will be suitable _leadership_...”

“No, it’ll be fine!” Junko protested, “Super fine! The four of us are already working together to make this shelter a better place, after all! And when the other shelters join us, there’ll be plenty, plenty of people!”  
“Well... Speak this idea at dinner tonight,” Oogami offered, arms crossed with a smirk on her face, “Though, if you have been as friendly with the others as you have with us, I doubt there will be any substantial opposition to your plan...”

“Same! Okay, Mukuro, we gotta tell everyone else about dinner, as fast as possible so you have plenty of time to make it, right?” Junko asked, grabbing onto Mukuro’s arm with both hands and pulling her up to the fifth and final floor, “Come on!”


	13. Chapter 13

Upon arrival on the fifth floor, it felt to Mukuro as if she was stepping onto the streets in the height of summer, from an air conditioned building. The air felt thick and sticky, but in moments she realized it was no true result of the air’s quality, but only by the tension which was so incredibly clear in the hallway.

Togami was standing aside, arms crossed and staring at the wall with a sneer, while Yasuhiro and Fukawa stood on the other end; or, more accurately, Yasuhiro held Fukawa on the other end, carefully re-braiding one pleat of her hair with a sort of tenderness previously unseen, which stood starkly obvious against all the glares exchanged through the hall.

“Oh, are you three fighting again?” Mukuro asked, quiet and obviously discouraged, wringing her fingers beside her own collarbone with a deep frown setting into her face, “I should have known I couldn’t make you get along...”

“Ikusaba?” Yasuhiro questioned, trying off the pleat then stepping over to Mukuro, heels clicking on the tile floor as she approached, “I see. You’re trying to foster friendliness between us all in order to prevent potential murders, yes? A stellar idea indeed, but I’m afraid it simply won’t work. Toukou and I haven’t gotten along with Togami for years and I do doubt that’s about to change.”

“It looked like something happened,” Junko noted, flouncing over to Togami and whispering in his ear, “You know, if you’re a guy who beats girls up, nobody will vote for you in the pop. u. larity. poll.”

“What do I care about some petty popularity poll?” Togami snapped, shoving Junko away and knocking her to the floor. She only blinked in shock for a few seconds before Mukuro was at her side, and as soon as Mukuro asked if she was all right, she burst into tears.

“Byakuya Togami!” Yasuhiro grimaced, stomping her heels in a rather menacing fashion as she walked up to him, “First your spat with Toukou, and now this? How can we be expected to live with somebody as violent as you, could you explain that, perhaps?”

“I’m not violent. I merely have no time for petty things and will not hesitate to voice my annoyance in the case that such things come up. It’s quite simple, honestly. Your microscopic brain simply cannot handle it...” He yawned, then started picking at the dirt under his nails.

“Microscopic...?” Fukawa questioned from her corner, stumbling over as if she’d very recently been given a limp, “Yeah right. At least Taeko and I got in based on fine arts skills... you talk big, but you’re here for baseball, Togami,” She smirked as she glared at him, “How can you claim to be oh so smart when your first response to any conflict is violence...?”

“Wait,” Mukuro spoke up from where she sat next to Junko, voice flat but carrying some bit of distress, “Togami, did you follow the two of them up here...?”

“But of course I did!” Togami nodded, throwing his head back then pushing glasses up his nose at the same time, “Somebody had to keep an eye on these two, after all. Who knows what sort of unsavory things they might get up to, a doujin writer and a romance author... Not to mention that lesbianism is completely unacceptable when it is our job to be repopulating the Earth!”

“Ha, is that why you jumped me?” Fukawa questioned, stepping right up to him and snapping her teeth in his face. He stepped backwards, a bit shocked by the action, “You’ll have to come up with a better excuse than that! You just wanted to have your way with some disgusting girls, didn’t you?”

“Of course not!” He hissed, turning his head to the side, “I would never do such a thing with somebody like you. You only _wish_. Rather, I attacked you because I was suddenly overcome with rage at your existence.”

“Sure,” Fukawa rolled her eyes, “What, did you think that just because Taeko and I aren’t pretty and write smut, means that we’d just let you do whatever you wanted with us? Yeah right. You’re not that handsome.”

“Fukawa, I think you and Yasuhiro are beautiful!” Junko protested through her tears, then pointed an accusing finger at Togami, “You’re just upset because nobody here is fawning over you, you big bully...”

“It’s your own problem, if you can’t see my clear and shining virtues,” Togami sneered, “Or perhaps the problem of the world. I am confident that I am a fine human specimen, and if you do not wish to reproduce with me for the sake of the world, then it cannot be blamed on me!”

“If anybody gets killed here,” Yasuhiro narrowed her eyes, glaring daggers through Togami, “I most certainly hope that it’s you, asshole.”

“Hey, hey,” Mukuro interrupted, “Everyone needs to stop, please... I don’t want anybody to get killed here. Even if he is being really mean...” She frowned and looked up at Togami, “You really need to stop, Togami! We all need to do our best to get along here. Even if the three of you don’t like each other, just avoid each other, don’t seek people out just to fight with them...”

“Well if I don’t keep an eye on these two, then who will?” Togami questioned, wrinkling his nose, “Nobody would want to spend time around these rotten perverts. I’m doing everybody a service!”

“Who says that anybody needs to keep an eye on us?” Yasuhiro questioned, stomping a bit closer even, “Toukou and I are rivals. Therefore, we keep an eye on each other. You’re just an unwelcome nuisance.”

“Yeah,” Fukawa nodded, “And ‘keeping an eye’ on us definitely doesn’t justify attacking me. I know I’m disgusting, doesn’t mean that you have the right to pull my hair and kick me...”

“Just watch!” Togami hissed, turning to face Mukuro, “They were standing so close to each other! You seem concerned for everybody’s well-being, so why can’t you understand that allowing these girls to get too close will cause problems?”

“It won’t,” Mukuro shrugged, “I would rather somebody be ‘too close’,” She made air quotes on that, “Than be enemies. I want us to be happy. I could not care less about repopulating the world... so, with that in mind, you are causing far too many problems. I believe you are simply a person who is full of hate, and trying too hard to justify yourself... Get over it, or I’m sure we can figure out something to do with you to make you,” Mukuro’s voice was firm and unwavering for once in her life as she threatened Togami.

“I...” Togami couldn’t muster a response.

“Anyway,” Mukuro stood up and helped Junko off the floor as well, “I’m making dinner tonight, for everybody. Should be ready in around an hour... hour and a half, maybe. Don’t bother coming if you can’t be courteous, though...” Her tone fell back into a timid range.

“That sounds lovely, Ikusaba,” Yasuhiro noted, giving her a soft smile, “Toukou and I will most certainly be there.”


	14. Chapter 14

On the way back down to the cafeteria, Mukuro and Junko made sure to let everybody know that dinner was going to be in about an hour, and to be in the cafeteria around that time. Back on the first floor, however, Asahina and Hagakure were no longer in the entrance hall, nor were they in the cafeteria.

Knowing that those two would probably be especially excited to eat, the sisters set off to try and find them on the first floor; it took a little while, but eventually the pair of gluttons were discovered in the school infirmary, which Junko and Mukuro hadn’t actually visited yet. Junko was the first to speak, “Hey, got tired of staying in one place?”

“Hm?” Asahina looked up, then nodded, “Uh, yeah! We got sick of it so we went investigating, yeah-”

“Asahina, you’re an awful liar,” Hagakure informed her simply, putting a hand on her shoulder only to have it flicked off.

“They might have bought it if you didn’t have to pull out your poker face superiority on me!” She whined at him, but didn’t seem legitimately annoyed, turning back to Junko, “I guess if it’s you, it’s fine if I tell you. I wanted to see if they had any cough syrup. Like, the kind that you can get high off of. Unfortunately,” She frowned, looking through the medicines, “Everything here is bland and boring stuff. I guess they anticipated me...”

“Well, your title may as well be Super High School Level Delinquent...” Mukuro pointed out, “Of course they aren’t going to put anything in the building that you could make drugs out of...”

“Hmph,” Asahina pouted, crossing her arms, “Guess you’re right. It’s a pain though, that they’d typecast me like that! I almost never did drugs on the outside, I just thought that in the lawless apocalypse I may as well,” She groaned, “But there’s not even any tobacco! Don’t they know that making me stop smoking out of nowhere’s gonna go bad?”

“That doesn’t seem the smartest...” Mukuro mumbled, “Cold turkey... oh, now I’d really like some turkey... is there meat in that kitchen...?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, there is! I guess they must have livestock up there?” Asahina noted, “Maybe their shelter is bigger than ours? I don’t think there’s room for animals in this one. Leon came down and told us that he took a look around and we do have a garden, but no livestock ourselves...”

“Well, if we’re sharing resources, of course they’d split it up,” Mukuro nodded, “Oh yeah... did you have any success trying to get in contact with them?”

“Absolutely! But, I wanna tell everybody, so let’s wait till we’re all gathered?” Asahina questioned, “Whatever we next gather for...”

“Actually,” Junko started, “Mukuro’s going to make dinner for everybody! In like, an hour, you should be in the cafeteria. Speaking of, we should go get started on that!”

“We?” Mukuro asked, “Junko, do you want to help me? Please don’t...”

“Sorry,” She chuckled, “I know, I know. I just get in the way if I try to help, but you do want me in the room with you, right?”

“Right,” Mukuro nodded, turning to leave, “See you two at dinner, Asahina, Hagakure...”

“Wait!” Hagakure called out, and Mukuro turned back around only to see him holding up a knife. A meat cleaver, actually, “You might need this, right?”

“Why in the world do you have that?” Mukuro asked simply, as if it was just an odd bit of plastic found on the ground rather than a literal meat cleaver.

“I dunno, I found it here in the infirmary, somebody must have misplaced it,” Hagakure shrugged, then held it out to Mukuro, who took it without further question, “Can’t wait to eat your food! Enoshima said earlier that you were good at cooking, after all!”

“Thanks,” She nodded, giving him a soft smile before turning and actually leaving this time, Junko following her to the kitchen where she pulled out some turkey indeed from the fridge and started putting something together; what seemed like a good idea to her was to imitate an American ‘Thanksgiving meal’ since she had all the ingredients here. Incredibly well-butchered turkey, both light and dark meat... potatoes, breadcrumbs, stock. She could make mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing to go with the turkey...

Well, maybe the others would prefer more familiar food? However, the American meal was very warm and comforting; perhaps onigiri or noodles would be a better choice later on, but she knew this meal was an effective comfort food; Korokke, Takoyaki, or Agedashi were her favorite Japanese comfort foods, but she was missing a few ingredients for each of those... said ingredients being flour, octopus, and tofu. She’d think tofu would be in abundance, seeing as it was a plantable source of protein, but then again, if they had livestock then it probably wasn’t a priority.

“Mukuro,” Junko started to chat while her sister worked on preparing the food, “Don’t you think this is a nice place...?”

“Hm? Yeah. Fujisaki asked me that earlier, remember?” She shrugged, cutting up potatos.

“I know, but I mean, I kind of really like it here,” Junko sighed, sitting on a chair backwards and draping herself over its back, “Like, if not for Monobear, this would be a super fun place to live. If nobody had ever said a thing about the possibility of murder, I’d be psyched! It’s like an eternal slumber party with all my classmates. And, my cute sister is here! As long as I have you I think I’d be totally happy, but I still can’t stop worrying about the others...”

“You’re right...” Mukuro nodded, “It’s nice. Neither of us really had close friends back in middle school, so it’s not like we have anyone to miss... but I already feel like I’d be much more upset at the idea that anyone here, I’d never see again...”

“There’s a media room, a pool, a rec room... All sorts of things to make it a good place to live, and you know, it’s not that different from when me and you lived on our own, right? Now we just have some more people. I hope... that we can live peacefully. That’s what you want too, right Mukuro? That’s what you’ve been trying to do?” Junko questioned, voice far softer than usual.

“Yeah...” Mukuro nodded slowly, pausing in her cutting of the potatos, “It would be nice, wouldn’t it? If I could just cook for everyone, and we could plan nice activities with our days, and everyone could get along... I think that would be a happy life for me... But I’m scared. I’m scared that people will start fighting...”

“Yeah, I know,” Junko nodded, “So am I. There’s no reason for it, really. I’ve been listening to Monobear’s programmed audio...” She tapped her ear, showing that she had her earring turned up into her ear, using its alternate function as a discreet earbud, “And it seems that, with the other floors open as they are, maybe we’ll be fine. There’s also artifacts of old files that said getting away with murder would allow escape... but I guess that was changed somewhere along the way to just disclose the shelter instead. Maybe it had something to do with the layouts and hierarchy of the shelters connecting? We’d have figured it out...”

“Yeah... I guess we can just hope that whoever wants us to kill each other, is failing in their plans...”

“The only problem is,” Junko tapped her foot on the ground, frowning, “There are motives. There are things designed to make us squabble with each other... and at the end of the world, who’s to say we won’t give in to violent desires in positions like that? But, Mukuro,” She reached her hand out towards her sister, then closed all her fingers but her pinky, “I promise you. I won’t kill and I won’t get killed. Can you promise me, too?”

Mukuro smiled, putting down the knife on the counter before she turned around and nodded just once, reaching out her hand to link pinkies with her sister, putting her free hand behind her back and crouching down a bit, “Yeah, Junko. I promise.”


	15. Chapter 15

“Thanks for the food!” Everyone said in practical unison once they were seated at the large table Junko and Mukuro had pushed together from smaller ones in the cafeteria, before starting to eat the meal Mukuro had made for them. She smiled sheepishly before starting to eat it herself, although Junko only took a few bites before clearing her throat.

“Attention, everybody!” She hit her hand on the table to make a startling noise as well, waiting till all eyes were on her, “From this point forward, my talented sister is going to make us dinner every night! Not to say other people can’t go on dinner detail if they want, but I mean, it’s defaulted to Mukuro! And we’ll always all eat together!”

“Now,” Junko continued, “The purpose of this will be to reconvene as a group every day, to talk about discoveries and ideas and that sort of thing! For example, from this point forward, Kirigiri, Naegi, my sister and I will form a practical student council! With input from everyone, the four of us will put into action an itinerary for fun activities to keep us occupied and happy at the end of the world! Basically that makes us in charge, but really it just means that we’ll do all the real work.”

“Mm, that’s right,” Kirigiri nodded, giving everyone a bright smile then poking Naegi’s cheek to prompt him to nod as well, “It’s important that we create a happy and healthy environment for all, and the four of us are most suited to act on this idea! Although, if there are any objections...”

“I object,” Togami interrupted through a mouthful of food, “It would be wise if those sisters were not involved in decision making. They care only for the interior of the shelter, and not the future of the outside world...”

“The outside world isn’t important right now,” Naegi responded, “What’s important is that we don’t let our position turn our lives miserable. We’re teens. Too young to worry about repopulation, or building generations to get to the outside world. Right now our main concerns are to maintain our mental stability and become self-sufficient, I think,” Most of the others nodded in agreement with him, excluding Togami.

“Great!” Junko clapped, “Now, the first activity needs no scheduling. We’re going to have a popularity contest, like most high schools do! I’ll set up a box to cast votes in before I go to sleep, and we’ll check and tally them all next week! Please, everyone should vote for one girl and one boy regardless of your own gender and sexuality!”

“Indeed,” Kirigiri nodded, “In addition, tomorrow will be spent developing an itinerary for the coming week, so if you have any suggestions, please do tell us as soon as possible. The only activity tomorrow will be a showing of ‘Wake Up, Girls!’ directly following dinner, and can be spent settling in.”

“Now then!” Junko put her hands on her hips, “I want to stop talking and eat my sister’s amazing cooking! So why doesn’t everyone else go ahead and talk about what you found today?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Asahina agreed, speaking through an even bigger mouthful than Togami had earlier, gulping it down in one exaggerating swallow, “Hagakure and I didn’t explore a lot, but we did see the infirmary! And we made contact with the other shelter, too!” She reached into a pocket on her long coat and pulled out a sheet of paper, “This is what they sent us! Should I read it?”

“Obviously,” Chihiro sighed, but then froze and covered her mouth, “Ah, I’m sorry! Was that rude? Oh no, I’m so sorry...”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Asahina shrugged, “You’re probably right, and I was being kind of dumb. Anyway, it says the people in that shelter are... Yasuke Matsuda, SHSL Therapist, Santa Shikiba, SHSL Crime Scene Investigator, Kanon Nakajima, SHSL Secret Agent, Yui Samidare, SHSL Gyaru, Ryoko Otonashi, SHSL Confectioner, and Rei Mikagami, SHSL Maid... and that Otonashi would be glad to take requests on what to bake.”

“That’s only... six people,” Mukuro frowned, looking away, “That’s not a full class. Our own class was a small one, too...”

“Ryoko Otonashi is a nice name,” Junko noted, looking up at the ceiling, “I’d like to have a name like that.”

“Junko...” Mukuro groaned, “That’s not important right now. What is important is that there’s only six of them. Does that mean that they killed people over there...?” With Mukuro’s statement, a silence fell over the room; nobody had thought of that potential.

“...Probably...” Maizono mumbled, and people turned to look at her, seeing that she was using the chef’s knife she’d stolen from the kitchen to cut her food. The comically oversized knife would probably be humorous if the majority of students here weren’t terrified of her to begin with, “I mean, why would somebody target only us? I can only imagine the terrorist group which ravaged the outside is trying to sabotage our survival here...”

“Or,” Ishimaru rose a finger to the air, “Perhaps they are trying to thin our numbers...” He hesitated, then leaned his chin on his fist, “For example... if there was a group which wanted to cleanse the world, then this would be the perfect way to do it. The people worth living after the fallout are the ones who don’t kill, and don’t give others reason to kill them...”

“Upupu!” He was interrupted by the voice of that bear, and while Mukuro looked at Junko to see if she’d played the sound, everyone else looked around, trying to find Monobear right up until it dropped onto the table in front of them, “Now is as good a time as any to mention! If you murder somebody and get away with it... you have all the power! You can decide who is executed and who continues to live along with you! That’s the benefit of getting away with it, upupu! You can get rid of anybody you think is unsavory, and live happily with whoever you want to hold on to!” And with that, it gave a little spin and was once more gone.

Mukuro looked around the table, noting people’s expressions. Togami seemed contemplative... of course he would be. Leon seemed almost confident; maybe that nobody _could_ get away with anything while he was around. Kirigiri appeared lost in thought; most everyone else was shocked, but Maizono looked absolutely terrified. Of course she would, Mukuro thought. If anyone did get that reward, they certainly wouldn’t want to keep someone like her around... or at least, if certain people did.

“I’ve met Yui Samidare...” Kirigiri muttered, effectively changing the subject and sending a wave of relief through everyone in the room, “We worked together on a few magazine shoots.”

“Now that you mention it,” Leon added, “Kanon Nakajima is actually a relative of mine.”

“Well I don’t recognize any of these names!” Asahina waved the paper in the air, “But, what the Hell is a SHSL Crime Scene Investigator? What’s the difference between that and Leon’s talent, huh?”

“Quite a bit, actually,” Leon shrugged, brushing off his coat, “I can only imagine this Santa Shikaba finds his skill based in forensics; an approach towards gathering and analyzing evidence. Detective work is a direct promotion from officer, and is based more on ability to act on crimes, deduce, and speak to witnesses and suspects.”

“I see...” Hagakure mumbled, pushing his now-empty plate away, “Well, that was delicious, but I’m going to sleep now, because I’m exhausted and six-thirty is late enough for me when I’m this tired,” To accentuate his point he stretched his arms, yawning before he stood up, “Need me, my name’s on the door, just knock and maybe I’ll wake up. 20% chance maybe? Yeah.”

“Like probability means a thing to you...” Yasuhiro rolled her eyes as she watched him go, but then gave a yawn of her own, “Oh my. I’ll do the same once I’m finished eating, however...”

“Yeah, I’m gonna too, as soon as I set up the voting box!” Junko put her two cents in, then started eating a lot faster.

“Well, I’m not that tired,” Asahina added for herself, “But after a great meal like this, who wouldn’t want a nap? You did a great job, Ikusaba!”

“Oh, thank you...” Mukuro nodded, smiling a bit, “I didn’t have the ingredients for any Japanese comfort foods, but I could at least make an American one... We’ll have to try and grow some soybeans...”

“Oh! If we had tofu, and soy sauce... there’s all sorts of things you could make if we had those...” Chihiro smiled, humming a bit, “Oh yes...”

And in that moment, even with looming threats and disagreeable peers among them, Mukuro thought, it was nice here. It truly was, and these were nice people, and she’d do whatever she could to keep it that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: this is operating on the assumption that in the original dr0, Ryoko Otonashi the SHSL analyst was not an entirely fabricated person, but a real student whose identity was stolen.


	16. Chapter 16

“Hey look, Mukuro,” Junko giggled a bit as the two of them got into their room, the voting box for the popularity contest set up and all the dishes washed, “Bunk beds. Do you want the top bunk this time?”

“Of course not,” Mukuro shook her head, “I prefer the bottom bunk anyway, Junko, but I’m confused. You’ve been... really, really nice to me today. It’s not quite like you... I mean, you’re always nice to me, but... you were extra nice today, singing my praises to everybody...”

“That’s because...” Junko froze, lifting a hand and biting her thumbnail, chipping off the pink nail polish there. Mukuro stepped a bit closer, concerned; Junko rarely acted on any nervous habits, “Mukuro...” She was nearly whispering in terms of volume, “When I woke up in that classroom, and you weren’t there, I was... I was so... scared.”

“Junko?” Mukuro questioned, pulling her sister’s hand away so she couldn’t keep biting her nail, and flashed her a smile, “Don’t be silly. I was scared. I’m the one with the separation anxiety...”

“I thought so too...” She mumbled, closing her eyes and turning her head to the side, “But, just because you’re the one who wanted to always be together at first... Until today, we always were, Mukuro! So how would I have known?” She gave a weak laugh, “I... I need to be around you. I need you. I always acted like I was just humoring you, by letting you hang around with me all the time, but... I guess I needed that too. I’m sorry...”

“What are you apologizing for?” Mukuro asked, letting go of Junko’s hand.

“For acting like I was better than you?” Junko shrugged, wiping her eyes of the tears which had started to form, “All those years, I told my friends, and anyone I dated, that you were just my weird sister, to ignore you when you tagged along because that was just what you did, but... I realized today, I was just the same! I could pretend like I wasn’t, when I could act like I was just doing it so you wouldn’t be upset, but...”

Mukuro frowned, then stepped forward and hugged her sister tight. She noticed that Junko was shaking; not quite shivering, but rather, trembling. She was really upset, wasn’t she? Mukuro sighed, “Junko... I don’t care about any of that. I’m just glad that you spent the time with me. You could and still can introduce me as your weird sister just as often as you like...”

“But, I don’t want to anymore,” Junko shook her head, hugging Mukuro back, “Because I’m just as weird. So I’m sorry... I was so mean to you, for a long time. You’re really great, okay? You’re my cool... big sister.”

‘Don’t say that,” Mukuro chuckled, “You’re taller than me, and more developed, and you’re more like a big sister in every way, basically...”

“Mukuro,” Junko sighed, petting her sister’s hair, “Don’t you know, that if you die, I’ll have to die too? I can’t stay here by myself... I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mukuro shook her head as she pulled away from the hug, looking Junko in the eyes, “That won’t happen. We both promised, remember? We won’t kill, and we won’t get killed. I’ll make sure to keep my promise, and you should too!”

“Right,” Junko nodded, smiling, “We’ll be fine, won’t we?” She stepped away, walking over to the door of the bathroom connected to the room. Luckily for the both of them, the separation anxiety didn’t quite extend to violating privacy; as long as the door was slightly ajar, not even enough to see into the room, it was fine, “I think I’ll take a shower before we sleep.”

“Okay,” Mukuro yawned as she wandered over and dropped down into the bottom bunk, “I don’t know if I can stay up...”

“I’ll just say goodnight now, then!” Junko chuckled, then waved from where she stood with her hand on the bathroom doorknob, “Goodnight, Mukuro! Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite!”

“As if there would be bedbugs here,” Mukuro answered back, as she always did to that sentiment back home, “This furniture isn’t from Craigslist. Goodnight, Junko. Sweet dreams.”

Junko smiled softly as she turned the knob, but then hesitated and walked back into the room, setting her phone up to charge and going over to the room’s closet. There was her bag, full of the other chargers of course; no point confiscating those without a device to use them on, right? Hung up in the closet were also the clothes that she and Mukuro had brought for Hope’s Peak. She reached up and grabbed a pair of her pajamas, but then frowned. They were nice, yes, but silkier, and it was awfully cold in here now that she thought about it.

Well, she was sure Mukuro wouldn’t mind if she borrowed some of those silly fleece pajamas with the sheep printed on them; she pulled them down, then went into the bathroom, leaving the door open just slightly enough to make the two rooms feel connected, then undressed and stepped into the shower.

“Upupu! It’s time for Monobear Theatre!” She heard a voice within seconds, and was about to start looking around frantically when it continued, “Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean I’m peeping on you, Enoshima. You just forgot to take that earring out, the one you were using to listen to me all day! Didn’t think you’d like my voice that much!”

“Oh, oh, I bet you’re wondering how I’m saying these things! Well, that’s the thing. I’m preprogrammed with announcements, motives, and any and all comments I may need to make during a trial; but only because everyone’s all together during those things! Or, in the case of rulebreaking, could be all together... But at night! Upupu, at night, in the privacy of everyone’s own rooms... I can say whatever I want!” It continued in her ear, and she dropped slowly to her knees in the shower.

“That’s something you didn’t count on, isn’t it? A hound dog in your midsts? Or perhaps you’d prefer to say a rat? And you know, Enoshima, you ruined a lot of people’s plans with that phone of yours... but don’t worry. I won’t take it away. You’re a clever girl, you beat the system fair and square. Besides... you are a good person. I won’t kill you for it, because of that fact. But you know, I can’t just let you go completely unpunished...”

On that, a screeching noise sounded in Junko’s ear.

When she opened her eyes again, she way lying on the floor of the shower. Disoriented, she sat up, only to notice the blood running off her head had a red tint to it; something about that sound had dazed her enough that she’d fallen against the shower tile and been injured. Eyes wide with shock, she held her hand under the reddened water, watching it fall around her hand, a hysterical grin on her face as she realized the true gravity of the situation.

It was somebody among them, who was controlling this bear, and they could go off-script whenever they got the chance. Deliver punishments, without even being in the room. Whoever it was, certainly did want to control these humans at the end of the world.

And with this sinking knowledge, Junko knew. She knew that it wasn’t a matter of keeping people from killing. The saboteur of the shelter would be sure of that. It was a matter of surviving through the danger which was to come.


	17. Chapter 17

“Good morning...” Mukuro mumbled as soon as she woke up, having not even opened her eyes yet, but knowing from the slight sounds of movement in the room that Junko was up already. She rolled over and looked to see Junko sitting on top of a dresser across the room.

“Morning!” She hopped down and walked over to Mukuro, crouching down next to the bed, “Feeling rested?”

“Mm,” Mukuro nodded, then sat up and blinked a few times, looking at her sister only to see that Junko was wearing her hair differently, parted such that it was all on one side, “You changed your hair? Who are you trying to impress? Naegi...?”

“Hm?” Junko looked very confused for a moment, but then laughed and waved her hand, “No, no! I’ve just been teasing him for his good looks, it’s not like I seriously want to date him! I don’t think anyone here is really boyfriend material for me... Naegi would be better for you! I just did my hair differently because I need people to take me seriously as a student council member, and pigtails aren’t great for tha...” She trailed off as Mukuro reached out and touched her head, face blank until her hand made contact and she narrowed her eyes.

“Did you really think you could hide the fact that you’re hurt from me?” She questioned, pulling her hand back after feeling the scabbing there, “Well, I guess you want to hide it from the others, too, but don’t lie about it to me... You always did this when you got goose-eggs, too. What happened?”

“I slipped and hit my head in the shower,” Junko proffered up a half truth, and in return, got that scrutinous look continued. With an exaggerated sigh, she gave it up, “Sorry. Monobear started talking to me through my earpiece last night and made a loud noise to startle me. I just... didn’t want to scare you by saying so.”

“Monobear... hurt you...?” Mukuro sat back on the bed, staring forward blankly, looking somewhat... broken, in her behavior, “It hurt you? It spoke to you? Startled you? I thought you knew what it could say...”

“Well, I guess I was a little bit wrong,” Junko sighed, running her fingers through her hair to try and make sure it stayed on the side to hide her injury, “At night, it’s possible for whoever’s in control to use a voice-changer to speak through Monobear...”

“Only at night...?” Mukuro questioned, then crossed her arms and looked away, sighing, “If that’s the case, it means that... it’s somebody here.”

“Not necessarily,” Junko shrugged, “I mean, it could be somebody in one of the other shelters, technically... problem is, we can’t know that. Monobear said there was a rat, but I mean, that could just be to stir up suspicion. I think we should just keep acting as we have been...”

“Mm, I do too,” Mukuro nodded, “After all... even if the mastermind is among us, does that really mean anything? If they were, they wouldn’t kill anybody, because then they’d be executed. I’m sure that they want to stay around.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Junko nodded, “We should keep this information from the others. I know that secrets are bound to be a bad idea, but it’d be worse if we gave people reason to suspect each other... Just because you and I know there’s a traitor in our midsts doesn’t mean that everybody should.”

“I’d have to agree with you,” Mukuro sighed, “But... if the secret comes out, then we’ll be doubly distrusted for keeping it, won’t we?”

“I don’t think so. I bet they’ll just distrust us for keeping it, but think we couldn’t be suspected... After all, the mastermind doesn’t want us to trust each other. I bet Monobear will tell everyone eventually, when tensions run high... it wouldn’t make sense for us, as people behind this, to keep it a secret. So we’ll be fine.”

“If you say so,” Mukuro pulled her shoulders up, making herself small, “I just hope this doesn’t cause any problems...”

“Everything will be just fine, Mukuro!” Junko assured her, and it was by far the most convincing lie she’d told in a long time, “Anyway, we have a meeting with Naegi and Kirigiri in about an hour and a half. You should get a shower, then we can go eat breakfast. Oh, also,” She had stood up and walked away, but turned around at this, “Hope you don’t mind, but I borrowed your pajamas last night. I’ll do the laundry to make up for it!”

“Hm? I don’t mind...” Mukuro mumbled as she stood up and made her way over to the bathroom, frowning once she looked and saw a few lingering bloodstains on the shower tile where the water didn’t quite reach it. She turned the water on, stepped in, and scrubbed the stains away with her hands as well as she could.

She didn’t want those to stay there; a reminder of how somebody precious to her had been the first person injured as a result of this saboteur. Sure, Fukawa had been hurt in her fight with Togami, but that would have happened no matter what any mastermind said, she was sure. But, Junko... Junko was in danger, for ‘breaking the killing game’ as she so put it, and that was absolutely terrifying.

This had nothing to do with the promise; when it was only other people, then it was easy enough to promise not to kill or to get killed; Mukuro and Junko were always together, after all. Anyone wanting to kill either of them would have to kill them both, and if either of them ever got close to snapping and killing somebody the other would be ready to calm their hand.

However… if there was somebody pulling the strings, it was easy enough to isolate the sisters. If the mastermind wanted either of them dead… Mukuro had no doubt it would happen. A potential paradise, scrapped at the hands of one enemy…

Mukuro had never hurt anybody before. Junko had always done it for her, if the need arose, but… she was resolved. She’d follow her sister, if she was killed, yes. But first… she’d take action against the one who made it happen. The Mastermind… would fall at her hand. This she knew to be the truth.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may notice I posted a few things since my last update; single chapters I already completed of non-dr fics. However I was in a writing block. Until yesterday, when I wrote a pokemon Go fanfic. Therefore, it's gone! Here's another chapter to tide you over, though daily updates will resume August 7th!

“First official meeting of the apocalypse shelter student council, go!” Junko grinned as she slammed her hand down on the table in front of herself, earning her fairly flat looks from the other three council members, which caused her to sigh and sink down in her chair, “Well fine then, be that way...”

“We need to draw up a proper itinerary,” Mukuro deadpanned through a mouthful of croissant. It was quite a good croissant, of course, it would be with a confectioner in the shelter prior to them. Of course, that only got her thinking again about the fact that there was probably a similar killing game back there... It must have been visible in her face, because Junko set a comforting hand between her shoulderblades.

“That’s right,” Kirigiri nodded, pulling out a notebook, “I retrieved this from the school store yesterday. We can use it to write down our ideas, then copy it down onto posters or handouts for everybody else.”

“I can cover that,” Naegi volunteered, then turned to look at Junko, “Programming requires a lot of tedium, right? Think you could help me out on that front?”

“Yeah, totally!” Junko nodded, then leaned across the table and grabbed the notebook, along with her own sparkly pen from her pocket. Something which hadn’t been confiscated, not for her hiding it, but just because there wasn’t much point in getting rid of a pen, “So today’s the movie, but we gotta plan out the rest of next week. Do we... do we know the date? Or what day of the week it is?”

“I guess we don’t,” Kirigiri sighed, leaning on her palm and tapping her own pen against the table, “Should we just schedule things like... day one, day two?”

“No way!” Junko shook her head, “That just emphasizes the bad things, when we’re trying to bury them! We can schedule things based on times thanks to my phone, but I can’t seem to get a read on the date or the year, nothing specific. It’s weird, but it’s almost like this network blocks calendar functions...”

“Well then, we’ll just have to make something up,” Naegi decided, leaning his chin on his palm, “Since tonight’s movie night, why don’t we make it Friday? That means yesterday was a Thursday, and tomorrow will be a Saturday, and so on.”

“Yes, Naegi, we’re aware of how the days of the week go,” Junko rolled her eyes, but a good-natured smile made it clear that she was only teasing.

“That works for me,” Mukuro agreed with his statement, not her sister’s, then turned to look at Kirigiri. With another nod from her in confirmation, she tapped Junko to indicate that she should put that sparkly pen to work in setting up tables for each day of the week, along with times.

“Wonderful! Okay, let’s get to work!” Kirigiri smiled at her compatriots, “Tonight is only movie night because we need time to copy the itinerary, but we ought to fill subsequent days as much as possible. Plan mealtimes, and activities. We should also put out a sign-up sheet for cooking those meals.”

“Right on!” Junko nodded, “I can get all the copies done by tonight, but doing them all today is just impossible. I’ll distribute them just before bed!”

“Good plan,” Naegi nodded, leaning forward on his chin, “Enoshima, that phone of yours, it could be used to look up information, yes?”

“Yeah, assuming the info has nothing to do with the actual state of the outside world,” She leaned back in her chair, “And... The laptops up in the library aren’t capable of wireless internet connection, and I can’t find any ethernet, but I could use my phone charger to put documents onto those...”

“Great, that means we can put classes onto the schedule. Every day from ten in the morning till three in the afternoon, excluding weekends, we should run optional classes. People can sign up to teach those too, though I’m absolutely willing to do it myself,” Naegi affirmed.

“Good idea. I could try to teach, too,” Mukuro offered, hardly loud enough to hear, “Or just help you. I mean, as long as Junko was there...”

“Sounds like a great idea!” Junko shouted, leaning forward on the table again, “Of course I’ll go to classes if my cute sister is the TA! So, I’ll put those down for those times!”

“Perfect, thank you,” Kirigiri smiled, tucking a bit of hair back behind her ear, “I’m really glad that we decided to work together like this, you know. I’m sure that if all four of us put our all into it, there won’t be any issues, none at all.”

“...Yeah,” Mukuro agreed, grateful for her awkwardness for once in her life. Nobody would find her response suspicious or likely to be untruthful. She wanted to believe that, but she was quickly becoming jaded as time passed.

“Okay, so, breakfast at eight in the morning. Optional classes from ten to three... How about, then, from three to five is free time, five thirty is diner, and six is an optional evening activity which we’ll change day to day?” Kirigiri offered, “A simple template to follow, and the only things we’re forcing anyone to do are eat at certain times, which is sensible for the sake of keeping track of ourselves.”

“Yeah,” Mukuro nodded, turning to lock eyes with Kirigiri, “If somebody doesn’t show up for a meal, then we’ll have to go looking for them. Here’s hoping people just oversleep, and we find napping bodies instead of dead ones.”

“That was what I implied there, isn’t it...” Kirigiri sighed and shook her head, “I’m sorry. It’s just so difficult, with that threat hanging over us, you know? Staying positive?”

“So don’t,” Mukuro shrugged, “We’re a student government, anyway. We can do just the same as a regular government. _We_ can talk about the bad things. We just have to keep the peace for everyone else. Honestly, that’s sort of what we signed up for. By working to keep everyone happy, we’re the only ones who need to acknowledge that things really could go south here...”

“I just...” Naegi trailed off, frowning, “I really want to believe in everyone here.”

“So do I,” Junko joined in, siding with her sister, “And I do. I do believe that nobody here will kill anyone else here, right now. That could change, though. We never know what might happen, what made the shelter before ours break down and commit murder... It could happen to us too. If it does, we can’t stop working. We’ll have to keep everyone calm anyway.”

“Yeah,” Mukuro crossed her arms, staring down at her knees, “Fear is our worst enemy here. We’re the ones who’ll fight it off. That, that’s the _real_ job of the Hope’s Peak student council.”

And the other three nodded in agreement.


	19. Chapter 19

The itinerary was all written up.

Junko’s master notebook was totally full, and Kirigiri had fetched her several more pens in the case that the existing one ran out of ink; then, the other two members of the student council left Junko to her devices to copy down that schedule, identically, into fifteen other notebooks. Fourteen, if Mukuro and Junko shared one.

Mukuro, of course, was not about to leave her seat. Not as long as Junko was stuck here, writing down these itineraries; she didn’t mind, though. Even if Junko was paying too much attention to even want to talk, it was better than being separated. Even if it was... undeniably boring as sin.

“Ikusaba!” Somebody shouted from the door, several hours in, and Mukuro looked up from the napkin she’d been entertaining herself with by folding it up as small as she possibly could. Thrilling. Someone greeting her was a welcome change, so she smiled when she saw Ishimaru standing at the door, “Oh good, you are in here.”

“Yes, I have been all day,” She nodded, glancing around the cafeteria, “You should have seen that I was here during breakfast. Unless that is, you weren’t paying attention...”

“I was certainly paying attention!” Ishimaru protested as he stepped closer to the table, “It would be a disgrace to my training if I was to miss a single detail in a crowd! However, I ate a while ago, so I was unsure if you’d _moved_.”

“I see,” She noted, staring at him, “So... What did you want?”

“Well you see, Student Council President,” He saluted at her, “I have a request to make! A gym schedule! I need to remain in top shape if my military expertise is ever necessary, but...” He crossed his arms and looked down, “The equipment is being hogged.”

“Hogged?” She questioned, tilting her head to the side, “Well, shouldn’t there be enough for everyone to use...? There can’t possibly be that many people working out...”

“Well, it is a small gym. Asahina is using the one bench, Oogami is utilizing the pull-up bar, Oowada is alternating between the treadmill and the pool, and Fujisaki has taken claim of the elliptical,” He explained, “Not to mention, Yamada taking up most of the standing space with the dumbbells.”

“That does sound quite crowded...” Mukuro frowned, nodding, “I didn’t take Fujisaki for the type to exercise much, maybe you could ask her to yield up her machine for you?”

“Apparently,” Ishimaru shrugged, “The life of a fortune-teller is a dangerous one at times. It’s important to have the physique to defend oneself or to run away, in the world of a clairvoyant, and since her buddy Oowada’s in there to keep her company, she’s not budging till he’s done, so it seems.”

“Right,” She noted, “And what was your preposition to solve this problem, again...?”

“A gym schedule. Reserve the gym for certain people at certain times of day, so that people aren’t sitting in there taking up all of the equipment all day long.”

“That doesn’t seem like it would work very well...” Mukuro trailed off, then noticed his disgruntled expression and waved her hands in front of herself, “Ah, no! I didn’t mean your idea was bad. I’m sure it would work perfect well in the army, but here... Well, what if somebody only wants to go to the gym occasionally, but their timeslot overlaps with something else they want to do? When it’s people who are bound to work out every single day, a schedule is great, but...”

“...You are correct,” Ishimaru groaned, shaking his head, “Integrating myself and my capabilities into a student environment is proving to be much more difficult than I expected...”

“The military’s a lot different. I mean, I can only imagine, anyhow. That’s okay, though. Everyone here has something to get used to,” She smiled a bit as she consoled him, “For example, my sister and I, we’ve always gone to public schools. And she’s always been the _most_ talented person in my life, so to suddenly be surrounded by so many people who are just as good at things as she is, it’s weird for me. I’m still adjusting, like you.”

“Nonetheless...” He sighed, “I broke through all regulations to join the army at a young age, and exceeded my peers. I have grown to expect better of myself in all situations.”

“Okay,” She wasn’t sure why he was confiding all of this in her, and wasn’t sure how to respond, “Well, as for the gym problem. I’ll go in with Junko tomorrow morning and put up signs limiting the amount of time you can spend on any one piece of equipment at a time. Can I trust in you to enforce those signs?”

“Ma’am, yes, Ma’am!” Ishimaru nodded, and saluted her again, “You absolutely can! I am glad to be of service!”

“No need to say it like that,” Mukuro shrugged, “It isn’t as if I’m any better than you. I got here out of luck. I’m surprised they even bothered to send me to the shelter, given that I have nothing to contribute to the future...”

“Well, you are still a Hope’s Peak Student!” Ishimaru answered, “You are still hope for the future, even if you don’t excel in anything that is measurable. You still have luck. Or perhaps they expected your leadership skills, and that is the reason. There was no opposition to giving you the student presidency, after all. More or less.”

“I still don’t understand that. It isn’t as if I’m skilled in public speaking or anything like that,” Mukuro sighed, shaking her head.

“You do have a very good hype person, though,” Ishimaru noted, gesturing to Junko who was completely spaced out in her work, “And good ideas, if she speaks them for you. And now with this gym time limit, I’ve witnessed one of those good ideas firsthand.”

“Well,” She chuckled a bit, glancing away, “Thank you. I’m glad that I was able to help.”

“While I’m here,” Ishimaru added, looking up at the ceiling, “I would like to volunteer to cook dinner one night. Is there a sheet for that yet?”

“Oh, yes, actually,” Mukuro nodded, then stood up and led him over to the table where the popularity contest had been set up, “Right here, next to the popularity voting. Naegi had the idea of keeping all the group-related things like this all in one place. Heh... Have you voted in the contest yet?”

“No. It is foolish,” He shook his head as he leaned down to fill in the cooking sign-up sheet, “You may think I’d have no skill in cooking, but I promise, I will pull my own weight here and make a good meal for everybody. You have days of the week here... Did you learn the date?”

“I’m afraid not. We just decided to call today Friday, and work from there,” Mukuro shrugged, looking over Ishimaru’s shoulder, “Tuesday night? Wonderful. After dinner that night we were planning to show a movie from America, from back in the 80s... It’s in English, but you were stationed in an English-speaking country for a time, yes? Will you join us, Ishimaru?”

“I believe that I will,” He nodded, putting the pen back down then turning to Mukuro again, “Thanks for letting me know, Ikusaba. You are... quiet, yet kind. A skilled Student President indeed.”

“Thank you,” She smiled again as she returned to her own seat, “That’s really nice to hear, Ishimaru, and thank you for volunteering. I’ll start making up signs for the gym immediately.”

“No, thank _you_ for all your efforts!” He saluted again while walking out of the cafeteria, “I’ll see you around, Ikusaba!”


	20. Chapter 20

Ishimaru’s visit seemed to open the floodgates. Not that anybody else knew he’d come to see Mukuro in the cafeteria, only that as soon as he’d left Mukuro found herself without another long stretch of relative loneliness in the cafeteria. Within fifteen minutes, somebody else had walked in. She glanced up to see Maizono.

“Oh,” Maizono noted, “You two are still here? Well, that’s fine,” She shrugged and made her way further into the room, seeming to wander across the floor.

“Can I help you?” Mukuro asked, getting her feet for fear that in Maizono’s strange pattern of movement she might fall over.

“I came by to vote in the poll...” She explained, “And to get something to eat, ahah...” Maizono muttered, pulling her arms around herself and stopping where she stood, “How... How are you today, Mukuro?”

“I’m fine...” She trailed off, looking over Maizono, “Are you... okay?”

“Yes, yes...” She nodded, “I just haven’t eaten yet today... or had anything to drink, I’m a bit dehydrated...”

“What?” Mukuro questioned, frowning, “Why didn’t you? Maizono, that isn’t healthy at all-”

“Please, call me Sayaka,” She offered, holding a hand up to dismiss the use of her last name, “I was hiding, that’s all...”

“Hiding?” Mukuro questioned, frowning, “Hiding from what?”

“I didn’t want to see Togami,” She shrugged, “That man... frightens me. I think that I might kill him. So I should avoid him instead... I don’t want to kill anybody here...”

“Look, I’m sure you won’t,” Mukuro reassured her, leading her towards the kitchen, “And that’s no reason not to take care of yourself. Come on...”

“I’m sorry,” Maizono apologized as she went along with Mukuro, “You’re trying so hard... With a timebomb for a friend.”

“You’re not a _timebomb_ , Maizono,” Mukuro sighed, shaking her head as she pulled some dumplings from the fridge then poured her a glass of water, handing her both of them, “Just because you did bad things once doesn’t mean you’re permanently a bad person.”

“...Thanks,” She muttered, taking the items and starting with the water, gulping down half of it before she started to eat the dumplings, which were another delivery straight from upstairs, “I just... Mukuro, I’m so afraid. I’m so scared that somebody will hurt me, or that I’ll hurt someone... I can make people scared of me but I can’t stop being scared of myself, Mukuro...”

As soon as Mukuro had handed Maizono the food and drink, she’d returned to the doorway of the kitchen so that she could still see Junko from where she stood, but Maizono was still standing close enough that Mukuro could reach out and grab her shoulders, “Sayaka. We’re all scared, you know? Of everything. Of everyone. You don’t need to be this afraid, though. I promise. We’re working on keeping the peace, and I promise you, if you’re this scared of killing somebody, it won’t happen. There’s no way you’ll end up doing it. Do you need me to... to get Junko to talk to you? She’d be able to do better than me...”

“I think you did... You did just fine,” Maizono nodded slowly, stepping forward and leaning her face against Mukuro’s shoulder, “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Mukuro asked, freezing as Maizono got closer; not out of any fear, but just social panic. Was she supposed to hug her? Just stand here? The latter seemed a safe enough bet.

“For everything I’ve ever done,” She muttered, “I... I know. A lot of what I’ve done... Most of what I’ve done... Doesn’t have any impact on you,” She shook her head against her, “I know. But I need to say I’m sorry to somebody...” She pulled away, then gave Mukuro a teary smile, “Because, if I can apologize... Then I can start to move on. And there’s nobody else to say sorry to.”

“Well,” Mukuro shrugged, “I forgive you?”

“Thank you, Mukuro,” Her smile got bigger, and she tucked some hair back behind her ear, “I think, as long as you’re supporting me, I could handle anything... You have that effect on people. There’s... No need to tell Junko that we had this talk, okay? She doesn’t need to know.”

Mukuro leaned over to look at her sister, who was still oblivious, then nodded to Maizono, “I get it... You’re embarrassed. Better that I’m the only person who knows about this. Right?”

“Exactly!” She nodded, holding her hands in close to her chest, “You got me. It’s one thing to put up a scary front... it’s another to break down like I did. Thank you for listening.”

“Anytime... Though I still think Junko would be more helpful than me. Think about going to her next time?” Mukuro offered, shoving her hands into the pockets of her sweatshirt.

“Yeah, I might,” Maizono shrugged, “Or I’ll go to you again. I can hardly hear what you say most of the time but it seems like good advice. Plus, I like you. You’re a _really_ good friend.”

“Well,” Mukuro chuckled, “Thank you,” She then turned to go back to sit with Junko again, and Maizono followed, still holding her food and water that Mukuro had given her.

“Oh, Ikusaba,” Mukuro found herself greeted as soon as she stepped back out into the cafeteria, and looked around for the source. She sure was popular all of a sudden. Standing next to the popularity contest box and the meal sign-up sheet was Leon, “And Sayaka too. What’s up, you two?”

“Not much,” Maizono shrugged, smiling sweet. Mukuro noted that she was quite skilled in making it look like she hadn’t just been crying, “I came to get some food and to vote in the poll. Is that what you’re up to, Leon?”

“That’s right,” He nodded, then looked over at Junko, “And I have a question for you, Ikusaba, since Enoshima over there seems totally lost in the world of clerical work.”

“It’s similar to programming, in that it’s tedious, so she’s good at zoning out into it,” Mukuro shrugged, “What’s the question?”

“Well, I was wondering how many votes I can cast on one ballot. Is it just one per column or can I put votes in for multiple people that I find gregarious?” Leon asked, holding his ballot up.

“I think it’s supposed to just be one of each,” Mukuro answered, pushing at the floor tile with her toe, “I’m not sure, but yeah, I think that’s what everyone else has been doing.”

“Okay, cool,” He nodded, then grabbed the pen, “If it’s just one per column, my votes are going to Hagakure, and,” He turned to face Maizono again, “You, Sayaka.”

“Huh?” She froze, tilting her head, wide-eyed, “Leon, a vote for me is like a write-in vote in a democratic election. Pointless.”

“Not really!” He shrugged, “Popularity polls go by rankings, not just one winner. I like you, so I’ll try to boost your spot in the ranking, right? That’s what friends should do. I don’t want to let you get zero votes, like you seem to think you’ll get.”

“You won’t pull me out of last place, though...” Maizono sighed, “Why bother if that’s the case?”

“Nah, you won’t get last,” Leon waved his hand in the air, “Even if everyone else does think that you’re a coldhearted murderer, you’re really cute, so somebody else is bound to vote for you just for that.”

“Well,” She chuckled, looking away, “I _was_ a super popular idol till my talent turned into killing... You know, I still wish they hadn’t changed my title.”

“I do too,” Leon sighed, crossing his arms after dropping his ballot into the box, “Trust me, Sayaka. I really do wish they’d given you a chance to prove that you were more than that. But we can’t change that fact... But at least you know who your friends really are, if they’re willing to see past that nasty first impression?”

“Yeah...” She nodded slowly, smiling, “I guess that’s right.”


	21. Chapter 21

Just as Maizono and Leon were on their way out after spending some time sitting together while Maizono finished eating the dumplings that Mukuro had given her, Hagakure slipped into the room past the pair, then waved to Mukuro and jogged over, “Ikusaba! Enoshima! What are you still doing in here, anyway?”

Mukuro looked up with a blank stare, then pointed at Junko, “She’s copying the itineraries down. Insists on doing it all herself because she has the best handwriting. And you know me. Can’t leave the room that Junko’s in, right?” She shrugged, “So here… I am. What about you? Here to vote in the popularity poll?”

“Nah,” He waved a hand in front of himself, “Besides, I just rolled some dice to decide who to vote for, since I don’t really care about that sort of thing! I’m just here to get an early lunch… I was gonna ask Fujisaki to play some poker with me, and that can take a while, y’know? She’s got those fortune cards so, she must wanna play other cards, right?”

“Well,” Mukuro tilted her head, “That logic is flawed. Ignoring that fact, she was in the gym for the day last I heard. I don’t know when she’ll be finished in there, but apparently she’s keeping Oowada company… and is concerned for her safety as a fortune-teller. I hear it’s a dangerous profession… I suppose she’s being optimistic in regard to the future. If someone can do that, it’s her, I guess…”

“Ugh, bummer...:” He groaned, sitting down on a table, “I’m going to get fat, eating so much! I can’t gamble without a partner, right? I could play shogi against myself, but that’d get old real fast… And you know, Ikusaba, when I’m bored, I eat!”

“Yes, and?” Mukuro questioned, “That isn’t my problem. Starting tomorrow, there will be an array of options for you to occupy your time with… and there already is. A rec room, a garden, a swimming pool…”

“Yeah, yeah,” He sighed, looking up at the ceiling and shaking his head, “Say, Ikusaba. Do _you_ know how to play poker?”

“Yeah,” She shrugged, biting the inside of her cheek, “But you wouldn’t want to play me.”

“Come on, why not?” He questioned, chuckling, “I mean, it’s not likely I lose, but if I did, I’m not a sore loser.”

“I’m not worried about that,” She turned to face him, staring right through him, “I’m sure you’ll win. And I’m a really, _really_ sore loser.”

“Oh, Ikusaba!” He chuckled, hopping down from his perch on the table and clapping her on the back, “You’re a laugh riot!”

“What do you mean?” She questioned, folding her hands as she looked up at him.

“You? A sore loser?” He chuckled soft, shaking his head, “Yeah right. Do you even have an emotional response to anything at all?”

“...Yes,” She nodded after a few moments of silence, staring at her own hands, “When I’m separated from Junko, and when I lose. I think that’s the grand total.”

“Well, that’s both more than I expected, and less,” Hagakure pondered, “What if somebody died?”

“Don’t know. Hasn’t happened yet,” She shrugged.

“What if… Somebody kissed you?” He questioned.

“Well I’m not sure about that,” She looked up, “Usually I just wait out the milliseconds before Junko steps in and saves me.”

“Saves you? From being kissed? Geez,” He shook his head with a sigh, “Well, that’s kind of a downer. Everyone who’s kissed you is really that bad?”

“I don’t talk to a lot of people,” She mumbled, “And there’s always been that silly saying to get an insecure girl for practice, right? It’s just, well, good luck that my sister was always there to help me. Okay? Can you leave me alone now?”

“Ugh…” He groaned, “I’m sorry, Ikusaba. Look, let me make it up to you. Play a game with me.”

“How would that possibly make it up to me, Hagakure?” She questioned, turning to glare at him.

“Because, if I do win, I’ll do anything you ask me to for a whole week. Therefore, you actually win regardless of if you do or not,” He offered.

“Given you are the Super High School Level Gambler, you’re just setting yourself up to fail. It’s almost like you want to be indentured to me,” She leaned forward, crossing her arms, “Or you’re just way too desperate for a poker partner. Why not ask somebody else?”

“I already asked Ishimaru,” He shrugged, “He doesn’t play. There’s nobody else to ask if I can’t get ahold of Fujisaki!”

“Well, I suppose I could just play one game with you,” Mukuro sighed, wringing her hands, “But I’m blaming you regardless, if I get upset because of this.”

“Fine by me,” Hagakure shrugged, taking a seat and pulling out a deck of cards,”Let’s go,” He dealt them out, then the game began. Quite a while later, it was finished, and Hagakure was slumped over the back of his chair in shock, “God Damn… Ikusaba, I’ve been in the business of gambling for a long time, you know? I’ve never seen a better poker face.”

“You let me win,” She muttered, turning away and grabbing one arm in the other.

“No, I swear, I wouldn’t!” Hagakure waved his hands in front of himself, “Truth is, I was never that good to begin with, I just play smart! I’m better with more pure chance anyway, like slots! It’s not a shock that you could win, between your luck talent and that mask of yours…”

“Well, thank you,” She nodded, “Even if you let me win, it felt nice anyway.”

“Anytime!” He grinned, standing up, then chuckled, “By the way, Ikusaba. I knew you were here all along, and I knew where Fujisaki was too! I just figured you might be sort of bored here, so I decided to drop by and offer to play a game! Hope you have a nice day!” He saluted jokingly as he walked on out.

Mukuro smiled as she watched him go, content in the day’s proceedings. Why was she ever so concerned, when even a person like her could make friends in this place?


	22. Chapter 22

Mukuro was still wallowing in the comfort of the idea that people here actually wanted to talk to her when somebody who definitely did not want to have a pleasant conversation with her walked into the cafeteria. She only glanced for a moment to identify that it was Togami before she turned away again, leaning over the table to watch Junko’s work again. It wasn’t particularly interesting, of course, but she was making progress.

“Ikusaba,” Togami muttered as he walked up right behind her, and she looked up in surprise.

“What do you want?” She questioned innocently, unsure what reason he could _possibly_ have for speaking to her.

“Only a few questions for you,” He moved to sit down across the table from her, folding his hands and narrowing his eyes at her, “You are student council president, after all. It only makes sense that people would wish to have an audience with you, yes?”

“I guess so,” She shrugged, digging at the table with one fingernail, “But… I still don’t know what you would want to talk to me about.”

“Of course you don’t. You’re far too simple-minded for the position which has been bestowed upon you, simply because you are _nice_ and have a loud sister. Someone like me would be far better suited of course, but given that I am not well-liked… School politics are inane,” He scoffed and glanced away from her, “In any case, that means that I need to come to you if I have anything to request.”

“You still haven’t told me what it is you want to request,” She mumbled, closing her eyes.

“That’s right. See, I have come to the conclusion that I have set off on the… shall we say, wrong foot with everybody? Whereas, you have started on the correct one simply be being… Civil, and making dinner that one night,” He groaned, “Normally, I wouldn’t care about public opinion, but given the situation we’re in, I’d hate to be on enough people’s bad sides to get myself killed.”

“Whoa,” Mukuro stared at him for a moment, “Are you serious?”

“Yes,” He nodded, “However, given that it is in my nature to be abrasive, I believe the only possible way for me to become likeable in any way would be to follow in your footsteps by cooking dinner. Possibly… several nights?”

“Well,” She tilted her head to the side, “This is probably meaningless to you but I guess I should say that I’m… proud? You got over yourself? Anyway, the chef signups are over there, next to the popularity poll box…” She pointed in that direction, “Junko would want me to recommend that you vote while you’re at it, though I’m sure you don’t want to…”

“I suppose, if everyone else is partaking in this foolishness,” He stood up, pushing his glasses up his nose, “I should as well, at the very least, cast a vote. Perhaps this is why you obtained the student presidency after all. You can be very convincing with very little… Perhaps even no effort at all. An interesting phenomenon…”

“I wasn’t trying to be convincing,” She mumbled, watching as he made his way over to the box to cast his vote, being very precise with the pen, “Say, Togami. I have a question for you. Your talent is baseball… right? So why are you behaving in such a sophisticated way?”

“I was scouted for a _national_ team. Now, sports do not pay anywhere near as ludicrously in Japan as they do in the United States, but baseball is nonetheless… a big deal,” He explained, “And in attaining luxuries, one must also be sure to acquire a demeanor befitting of having those luxuries. Thus, I developed my truly backwards, frighteningly normal, rude self of the past, into my current dignified behavior.”

“Oh, so you used to just be a sports bully,” Mukuro looked off into the distance as if she was having a flashback, but spoke again just about immediately, “You know, that explains a lot. Thanks for telling me that. So you’re still working on becoming polite?”

“Well, I’m not very appreciative of your wording, but I suppose that is correct. I am still… Working at being… polite,” Togami frowned, then crossed his arms and sighed, “I do hope I can get this attitude in check before it drives somebody to commit murder. Of me, or of anyone else,” He hissed through his teeth as he adjusted his glasses _again_ , “Regardless of my interpersonal behaviors, I do believe it is for the better if more of us survive, given the nature of the demand to repopulate a devastated planet.”

“Yo,” Junko spoke up suddenly, and Mukuro turned in surprise to see her sister broken from focus to turn and look at Togami, “You feel that way, huh? Well, you better start showin’ it cause you’re already on a ton of bad sides here. Like mine, cause you pushed me on the ground. So, like, you can’t just make one dinner and resolve issues. Be nicer. Stop hurting girls. Don’t hurt guys either, even though I don’t think you’ve done that yet!”

“Enoshima?” He questioned, raising his eyebrows, “I was unaware you were capable of escaping the focused realm of the itinerary. However, if my presence is abhorrent you feel compelled to snap out of it just to call me on my behavior, I suppose that I have no excuse for staying here any longer. I do not know how to mend the bridges I burned, but if you have any idea how I can make it up to you, please inform me. In the meantime… I will be on my way.”

“Buh-bye,” Junko rolled her eyes, then returned immediately to work on her itinerary with one more muttered note, “All he really needed to do was _say sorry_ , jeeze…”

Mukuro sighed as she took a seat on top of the table, kicking her legs in the air and looking up at the ceiling. Something had to go wrong, she knew it. Something went wrong in the last shelter, something went wrong several times. There were so few of them left… Maybe they were all more volatile people than here, since even the most intimidating person to Mukuro expressed his intent to avoid any murders… However, even with all this newfound confidence, she couldn’t shake the feeling deep in her gut that something had to break.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!! Im really sorry about all the impromptu hiatuses I've been taking but I'm going to try harder from now on! I've just been so busy with work, it's hard to keep up with daily writing...

Movie night reared its head soon enough. Junko had just barely finished copying the itineraries when she checked the clock on her phone and discovered that it was just about time to get set up, with the movie set to start in half an hour. She’d stood up without a word and took off, Mukuro knowing by nature to follow after her. Junko had even worked on the itineraries all through dinner, and the preparation which Mukuro dutifully did for her peers (with Junko relocating while she was in the kitchen). Some people were still eating when she finished the one task and immediately set to work on the other one.

Mukuro stood by, leaning on the door while her sister configured the AV room to play the movie off of her phone. It only took ten of the available thirty minutes for the mobile screen to be projected in landscape, streaming website already prepped and ready to show off one of the siblings’ favorite movies. Later movies would have an assortment of genres to keep everybody interested of course, and as it was this one only attracted most of the girls (excluding Asahina and Sakura) as well as Yamada, Naegi, and shockingly enough, Togami. He sat in a corner in the back, and Mukuro was the only person to even notice his arrival.

The night itself was altogether uneventful; Mukuro and Junko stayed behind to close out the AV system when the movie was finished, and again, Mukuro was the only one who caught the elusive movements of the wild Byakuya Togami, slinking out after everybody else had gone, banking on the idea that Junko would be paying too much attention to her work. Mukuro wasn’t about to point it out, however. She was simply the quiet observer for now.

Junko finished turning off the equipment and unhooking her phone soon enough, at which point she flashed her sister a grin, “So, Mukuro? Did your sister do a good job?”

“Absolutely,” Mukuro nodded, a soft smile on her face as she lifted a hand to fiddle with the drawstrings on her hoodie, “You did great. We just have to keep this up, and everything will be fine, right?”

“Right on!” Junko agreed, giving two thumbs up, “We’ve got a handle on this! With me and you here, plus Naegi and Kirigiri, well, we’re just too big to fall! I bet whatever happened in that last shelter, they just had bad people there!”

“Me too,” Mukuro nodded, lying again. She’d never been able to lie to her sister, never been good at hiding things, but now… Now she could hide anything, in this situation. Her actual feelings towards the shelter… those would stay under wraps. She’d go along with all of this, she’d be hopeful, but she couldn’t shake the feeling underneath it all that something would have to go south sooner or later.

“Anyway,” Junko stretched her arms out over her head, yawning, “I’m beat. Let’s go hit the hay, yeah? Got another busy day ahead of us tomorrow!” She dropped her arms and strode out of the room, and Mukuro followed after her, only for the pair to find Chihiro leaning against the door of their dorm room upon arrival to the hallway.

“Hey there!” She greeted the both of them, standing up straight and waving, “I decided to wait out here so I could thank you personally for getting that set up! I really liked the movie and I’m so glad you would do something so nice for us. It was wonderful and unexpected. Oh, did that sound rude? I really didn’t mean it was unexpected from you, promise! Just in general!”

“Don’t worry about it, Fujisaki,” Junko chuckled, putting her hands on her hips, “You really think people are oversensitive, don’t you? Look, I promise,” She winked and held up her pinky finger, joking, “If you ever are _actually_ rude to somebody, I’ll totally call you on it, yeah? So for now just assume that you’re fine!”

“Really?” She questioned, then smiled, holding her hands in close to herself, “Oh, thank you so much, Enoshima! Also, Ikusaba,” She turned her attention to the other sister, “Dinner tonight was wonderful again, so thank you for that! I was busy all day so I couldn’t find out, but where would I go to sign up to cook? I’m sure my meals would pale in comparison to yours, but I can foresee at least one successful cooking endeavor in my future… Literally. Besides,” She chuckled a bit, sheepish, “I have to do something to pull my weight around here.”

“Oh! Well, the signups are in the cafeteria next to the box for voting in the popularity poll and-”

“You’re not required to do anything, Fujisaki. You have a talent, and that’s more than enough. Don’t feel obligated to cook just to make people think you’re useful… because that doesn’t matter. You’re hope for the future,” Mukuro mumbled, interrupting her sister, “The only one who _needs_ to do anything here is me, with my fake talent.”

“Well…” Chihiro trailed off, “My talent is real but it’s not useful, so I’m basically the same as you. Who would ever want to have the future told, when it’s already the end of the world? And if I don’t do anything…” She frowned, looking away, “Why would anyone bother keeping me around…?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Junko questioned.

“You heard what Monobear said…” She held her arms around herself and bit her bottom lip, “If somebody gets away with murder… They can cherry-pick who gets to stay in the shelter. I have to prove that I’m useful, because if that happens… Why would they want to keep somebody like me? They wouldn’t. Unless I become worthwhile.”

“That’s totally bullshit,” Junko pressed her hands together, “Like, even if somehow, somebody really _does_ commit a murder. We have a detective in our midsts! And like, we’re all smart. There’s no way we wouldn’t be able to figure out who did it. Nobody’s going to get that reward, never. You have nothing to worry about!”

“...Okay, if you say so…” Chihiro mumbled, shifting from foot to foot, “But… usually when I’m scared of something, I can be pretty certain…”

“Don’t worry about it, really,” Junko assured her, “Even the best fortunetellers are wrong sometimes, right? I promise that I can totally keep you safe!”

“Somehow,” Chihiro looked up at the ceiling, “I’m sorry, but I’m having trouble believing you.”

With that, she wandered off to her own room without another word.

In similar silence, Junko and Mukuro stepped inside. They needed sleep. Tomorrow, perhaps, they could console Chihiro more.

\-------------  
~MONOBEAR THEATRE~  
Boy, they sure are getting chummy, eh?  
Too bad, you bastards, there ain’t no way to game the system!  
Try as you might… Someone will break…  
And if nobody does,  
There’s always the hound dog.  
Upupupu!


	24. Chapter 24

The next morning, Mukuro slept in. Somehow, doing mostly nothing the better part of the previous day had left her in dire need of some extra rest. Since Junko couldn’t very well leave the room while her sister was still dozing, she just hung out, playing a game on her phone. She wasn’t as tired, and only slept about half an hour after the ‘morning announcement’ that Monobear laid down at seven. Mukuro, however, was fast asleep, and Junko wasn’t about to wake her.

When Mukuro finally did wake up, Junko was sitting next to her on the bottom bunk playing some rhythm game; one that could be easily played with thumbs, Mukuro figured it was most likely Tokyo Seventh Sister. Of course, she could be mistaken, but she wasn’t going to ask and would never know because Junko put the game away as soon as the song was finished, having noticed Mukuro’s stirring.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” Junko joked, leaning over her sister and letting her hair fall in her face, “Sitting in the cafeteria all day long tuckered you out?”

“I guess so…” Mukuro mumbled, sitting up as soon as Junko gave her the space to. She stretched, and yawned, then wrapped her arms around herself and stared off into the distance, “Or maybe I just didn’t fall asleep right away… I can’t quite remember. I just know that I’m tired.”

“Maybe,” Junko started, holding a finger to her own chin and looking up at the ceiling, “You went sleepwalking in the middle of the night? Maybe you went out to the gym and ran a few hours on the treadmill!” She joked, then a mischievious smirk worked its way over her features and she narrowed her eyes, “Or, maybe… Or maybe…” She pounced forward, “You killed someone in your sleep!”

“Junko…” Mukuro groaned, rolling her eyes, “That isn’t funny.”

“Come on, it’s a joke!” She insisted, then pouted, “Come on. If I made that joke back at home you’d totally find it hilarious, Mukuro… You’re not… seriously worried, are you?”

“Of course I’m not,” She lied, “It just isn’t a good joke.”

“Mukuro, you know if you’re scared you can tell me, right? I’m your _cool big sister_ right…?” Junko questioned, tensing her shoulders and her brow as she looked at Mukuro, earnest, concerned. Afraid that Mukuro would say different.

“You are, of course you are, but…” Mukuro trailed off, “Could I really tell you if I was scared? It almost seems like… you won’t allow it.”

“...Oh,” Junko frowned momentarily, then flipped to a smile, sticking her tongue out and hitting herself in the head, “Your sister really is a stupid Junko sometimes! After what you said about keeping the peace with people, I kind of went overboard, right? I told Fujisaki she was silly to even be scared… and that’s not the right way to reassure people. You’re a lot better at that sort of thing, I’m sorry! Of course you can be scared… I’m scared too.”

“Are you…?” Mukuro asked, holding her hands close to herself.

“Totally terrified,” Junko waved a hand, dismissive, “Like, you didn’t really think I’m not scared at all, did you? I’m the one who got attacked by Monobear! Of course I’m freaked out, but like… if we’re in a good mood, it’s contagious?”

“I guess so…” Mukuro nodded, “I’m not even afraid for myself, though. I’m scared you’ll get hurt. Or anyone will. I don’t want to see that happen…”

“Except Togami, right? He can get hurt. Least till he actually says sorry for pushing me,” Junko grimaced, “He’s just used to bribing his way out of _any_ situation he gets into, with no sincerity at all.”

“Well…” Mukuro trailed off, “Even him. I’m sure he’s trying,” She closed her eyes as she spoke, “Everyone’s trying. I just don’t think Togami understands how. He said he would do anything… Bribery is all he knows, but it’s sincere bribery…”

“I dunno, Mukuro,” Junko sighed, shaking her head, “I mean I can forgive him for pushing me because I’m an antagonistic person, but the way he was acting towards Yasuhiro and Fukawa kiiind of makes me think he isn’t exactly being real with us when he says he wants peace…”

“He was being rotten, but I mean… They had bad blood between them already, and the day we got here was stressful, and scary… If I was prone to doing bad things from time to time, well, the day we got here would make that come out,” Mukuro shrugged, “I think we should give the man a chance, don’t you? It’s pretty obvious most of what he said was, pardon my language, bullshit anyway... “

“Like…” Junko trailed off, “Idk. I mean yeah the _right_ thing to do would be to forgive and forget, under these extenuating circumstances, but it’s not that easy to do? Maybe I’m kind of a bad person for thinking that way, but I can’t just change how I feel, Mukuro.”

“I understand,” She nodded, then turned to stare at the wall, “I’m still furious he hurt you, too. I wouldn’t forgive him… if there was anything else making me as angry as that. I guess that’s how you feel about the way he treated Fukawa and Yasuhiro…?” She held her arms tighter around herself, “I don’t want anyone getting hurt or killed, but I also feel… detached. It isn’t about individuals, not really. I just want to hope that we’ll all turn out fine. Every one of us. It’s an abstract concept… Not like when you get hurt, and I get so angry I just want to scream… Everyone’s saying I’m such a people person, but Junko, I don’t understand people at all.”

“Sure you do…” Junko sighed, a soft and reassuring smile on her face as she reached out to stroke her sister’s hair, consoling, “Like, I’m an extrovert, but I don’t really. Get people. You do, in sorta, an abstract way I guess? You’re not good at conversation or making friends like I am, but like, you know how to _deal_ with people. I have chronic foot in mouth disease sometimes, and you like… always have the opposite. Even if you can’t wrap your head around it, you _get_ people. Understand them. Don’t have to be a people person for that.”

“I don’t though, I don’t understand why people do things-”

“Nobody does. You’re like, this ball of goodness though? I can’t say empathy really, but you… accept that people have differences and reasons for the way they act, more than I do,” Junko explained, “Like, shouldn’t it be obvious by now? You and me are totally two sides of the same coin. Like we should’ve been one complete, perfect person, but instead we ended up as two messed up half people. Together, though, we’re unstoppable! So don’t feel bad about yourself, okay? Without you I totally feel like nothing. And I promise we’ll keep each other safe, okay? I already told you. Can’t break a promise, and we both promised not to die; but this is another promise. That we’ll always stick together. Can you promise me that?” Junko raised a pinky.

“Yeah,” Mukuro nodded, locking her finger into Junko’s with a smile of her own, “Of course I can.”


	25. Chapter 25

Mukuro and Junko didn’t end up doing much of anything that day. Aside from dinner, they just sat in their room and busied themselves playing games on Junko’s phone, feeling the need for a day just to themselves after both being so busy the prior day and having such a big feelings jam that morning. The remainder of Saturday passed uneventfully, although by the time the pair went to sleep they’d resolved to spend Sunday socializing, and upon waking up that was exactly what they set out to do.

Junko’s head injury had healed enough not to be obvious anymore, so she was back to wearing her usual pigtails instead of the goose-egg hiding hairstyle she’d been sporting. Both of them went straight to breakfast, and upon arriving in the cafeteria sat down at a table with Naegi, Kirigiri, and Sakura, who seemed to be conferring with them about something.

“Morning!” Junko greeted them with a hand in the air, then leaned on the table and faced Sakura, “So, Oogami, what’s going on?”

“Well, given that these two comprise half of the student council, I was discussing how best to implement a disciplinary system. I’m very glad you two have arrived as well, meaning that the conversation can become an actual meeting,” Sakura explained, hands folded in front of herself, “I understand that Monobear will be handling certain infractions as you explained. Violence towards the bear, breaking of other rules set down, crimes… However, minor disruptive incidences have no sort of punishment in place. It seems that will fall upon us. I am certain that Ishimaru will assist me in upholding the standards of order, once they have been set down. Of course, we will only be covering incidences that would cause larger problems to arise, so as not to aggravate anyone.”

“It sounds like you’ve really got it all worked out already,” Junko shrugged, “Do you just need us to give you the go-ahead? Because like, that seems totally cool to me.”

“No,” Mukuro answered before Sakura got the chance to explain, “Junko, the need for a disciplinary system is _obvious_ already. What she needs us for is determining what sort of punishments could possibly be given in a place like this. We can’t have anarchy on our hands with no consequences for anything, but we also can’t let anyone entertain the idea that we’re abusing our power here.”

“Oh! Yeah I get it now, that makes sense,” Junko nodded, crossing her arms, “So what have we got so far?”

 

“Well…” Kirigiri trailed off, frowning, “Not very much. It’s difficult. We can’t quite remove privileges given that all privileges we’ve set down are in place to keep people from becoming too… Shall we say, stir crazy?”

“Yeah,” Naegi agreed, “I can’t think of what we could actually do, to keep people in line while avoiding upsetting them too much…”

“Well,” Mukuro started, “I could…” She trailed off.

“Really?” Naegi questioned, eager, “Of course you could, with all those great ideas you have! I’m really glad you’re here, so what’s the plan?”

“It’s not that great,” She shrugged, leaning forward on the table, “But I do have two ideas. There’s a therapist in the prior shelter, right? I’m sure he could offer attitude readjustment classes… and there’s always the option of prescribing additional chores for misbehavior. For example, dinner duty and gardening, cleaning, all of those things are based on volunteer actions. If somebody does something they shouldn’t, it would only be fair for them to make it up with some work…”

“Like community service?” Kirigiri asked, then smiled as she tucked a strand of hair back behind her her ear, chuckling, “Oh, Ikusaba. What would we ever do without you? That’s a perfect plan.”

“You’d do just fine,” Mukuro shrugged, looking away from the table, “I’m sure somebody would have thought of it sooner or later.”

“This is true, however,” Sakura stretched over the table to put a hand on Mukuro’s shoulder, “The three of us had been putting our heads together on the matter for several minutes before your arrival. Your idea was good and it was _fast_. Sooner or later is fine, but immediately is better, and that was what your thinking was. Good job.”

“Oh,” Mukuro froze, tensing her shoulders with an awkward smile, not used to this level of praise from anybody but her sister, “Thank you…”

“It is also part of my job to make outstanding community members feel appreciated,” Sakura noted, then stuck a tiny gold-star sticker to Mukuro’s forehead, “So I very much hope you understand how much everybody here appreciates _you_ Ikusaba,” She sat back down, then looked around at the others at the table, “I am unsure what we would have done without such a stellar core of student leadership our council represents. I am proud to be at a school which is influenced by this group of people.”

“I totally agree!” Junko raised her hand in the air, grinning, “And I’ll be even more proud, years from now, to live in a world rebuilt by my cute sister and our cool friends! That’s you guys,” She giggled, then made a peace sign, “And our cool kids too! Omg, in like, the far future of course. We’re still teenagers, I don’t want a baby yet! And no romances have developed!”

“You’re so silly, Enoshima,” Kirigiri chuckled softly, covering her mouth with her hand, “I’m glad. I share your sentiment, though not in so many enthusiastic words. It’s wonderful that we were able to solve this problem.”

“I am certain that in such capable hands, every problem will be solved,” Sakura agreed, nodding, “And if there is anything I may do to assist, I shall always be willing. When are we going to announce this new disciplinary program?”

“Well, it makes sense to announce things at dinner,” Naegi shrugged, “I think we can go one more day without enforcing order.”

“I agree,” Sakura nodded, “May I ask, who is cooking dinner tonight? Just out of curiosity.”

“I’ll go check the sheet,” Mukuro offered, “It’s probably me, I don’t think anyone signed up for tonight yet…” She stood up, then wandered over to where the sheet sat beside the poll box.


	26. Chapter 26

“Ikusaba! Just who I wanted to talk to!” Asahina dashed up to the table and slammed her hands down on either side of the popularity poll box just as soon as Mukuro approached, causing her to jump backwards in shock for a moment, “I’ve got an important question!”

“Okay,” Mukuro nodded, having already composed herself as she stepped closer to the table again and picked up the sheet. Still nobody till tomorrow; Togami’s volunteer day. Tuesday had Ishimaru, then the volunteer slots were empty, “Fire away.”

“Well, I was wondering how many days of dinner duty I’d be allowed to take?” She questioned, “I mean, your food is awesome, but as somebody who really loves food, who would I be to not know how to make some good stuff myself? And like, people need to _know_ that I can do stuff like that. I’m a bit more than police chases and fistfights, yanno?”

“Of course,” Mukuro nodded as she set the sheet back down on the table, “You can sign up any time you like, as long as somebody hasn’t already claimed it. As many nights as you want, there isn’t a limit. Unless your food is bad and everyone stages a protest to keep you from ever cooking again, but I seriously doubt that would happen.”

“Yeah, me too! So, I’m gonna sign up for tonight, and for a few more times scattered next week…” She grabbed the sheet and a pen, examining it, “I was planning to do some stuff on Wednesday, but I could take Thursday and Friday? That cool?”

“Very cool,” Mukuro nodded, then crossed her arms, “Thank you for that. Now, my table is waiting for me to tell them who’s cooking, so I should probably get back to-”

“Nonsense! You can tell em later, why don’t you hang out with me for a little while?” Asahina slung her arm across Mukuro’s shoulders, grinning, “I like the cut of your jib, ‘member? But then we totally haven’t gotten the chance to hang out, that’s just not fair. So we’re gonna. Right now.”

“I’m not sure right now is a good time to do that, Asahina,” Mukuro protested, “I mean, I really need to get back and tell them, at the table I came from, what’s going on, and-”

“Nahhh,” Asahina rolled her eyes, starting to walk and drag her along, “What, you intimidated by me now or somethin’? I thought we were pretty chummy the other day! ‘Sides, you gotta get some muscle on you. For real girl, you’re so shrimpy you’d never survive a day out on the streets, let alone a post-apocalyptic world!”

“By the time it opens up outside we’ll all be kind of old and frail anyways I don’t think it matters much…” Mukuro mumbled, holding her arms close to herself, “I would really like to spend some time with you but…”

“But what? Come on, who knows when we’ll get another shot!” Asahina insisted, continuing to drag Mukuro towards the door, but as soon as she got too close Mukuro managed to shake her arm and bolted all the way back across the room, drawing way too much attention to herself. Everyone was staring now, and she blushed, hiding her face in embarrassment, “Ikusaba? What was that about?”

“I-I’m sorry!” She protested, shivering, “I can’t! I can’t!” She shook her head, then leaned back against the wall and slid down to the floor, “I can’t be that far away from my sister… I can’t be in a separate room from her…”

“Oh,” Asahina grimaced, looking around at the people whose attention had now turned to her, “I, uh, I’m sorry. I didn’t really understand… that. Look,” She approached Mukuro, then held a hand out to her, “I won’t do it again. You and me, and Enoshima, let’s _all_ hang out sometime. The three of us, and it’ll be fine, right?”

“Yeah,” Mukuro nodded, accepting Asahina’s hand as help to stand up again, then looked away and closed her eyes, “I’m… really sorry…”

“What? No, no, don’t be!” Asahina waved her hands in front of herself, “I’m the one who’s sorry, it’s not like you can help it! I was just being inconsiderate, ah…”

“Well…” Mukuro shrugged, “It’s not like most people are as weird as I am. But anyway. I’m going to… go sit down. We can hang out later, though…”

“Well,” Asahina scratched the back of her head, “I’ve got some plans, then I’m gonna be cooking dinner tonight, so probably not later today, but later this week? Would that be okay?”

“Of course,” Mukuro nodded, “I’d like that,” She gave Asahina a soft smiled before turning away to walk back to the table from whence she’d come, sliding in next to her sister and even leaning against her a bit, “Hey guys. Sorry about… all that.”

“No worries!” Junko laughed, hugging her sister, “After all, it all worked out in the end!”

“Yeah,” She nodded, then turned to the others, “Asahina is making dinner tonight, by the way. In case you were still curious.”

“Oh, thank you Ikusaba,” Kirigiri smiled, then glanced away, “To tell you the truth, I completely forgot that was why you stood up in the first place…”

“Heh,” Mukuro shrugged, “Well, you still wanted the information, so…”

“Oh, no!” Naegi waved his hands in front of himself, “She wasn’t dismissing you! It was totally helpful for you to get the info, we just got a bit distracted. Is everything okay between you and Asahina now, or…?”

“Oh,” She mumbled, “Yes, it’s fine. She just didn’t know, that I can’t be separated from Junko. It wasn’t a big deal at all, I just… Messed up by making such a scene out of it…”

“It’s totally not your fault!” Junko insisted, “I promise, Mukuro! Like, it’s fine!”

“I just…” She frowned, looking down, “I don’t want to become a source of conflict. It’s the opposite of what I want. What if… What if I was… the hound dog?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kirigiri questioned, leaning forward on her hand.

“I don’t know, but…” Mukuro sighed, tensing her shoulders, “One of Monobear’s voice files said that… there was a hound dog. And that it would guarantee a murder occured. I don’t know what that means, but… maybe it’s that one of us is just bound to cause problems…”

“Sorry to eavesdrop, but…” Mukuro looked up to see Chihiro had wandered over and spoken, “I think I could explain what that means.”


	27. Chapter 27

“You can?” Junko asked, turning to look at her, wide-eyed, “Please, Fujisaki! What does it mean?”

“Well,” Chihiro sat down at the end of the table, holding a finger to her chin, “It’s a very questionable divination technique. When it seems that countries are on the brink of war with each other… Large-scale divinists will gather up people from each of the conflicting countries and put them on a boat. Whoever gets out alive will be the winners of the war. The hound dog is a person placed on the boat to make sure someone does die, either by committing a murder or faking their own death and raising suspicions…”

“How’s that supposed to work here, though? We already know we’ll have a trial as soon as somebody’s dead, so that doesn’t leave a lot of room for faking a death…” Junko frowned, crossing her arms and kicking at the floor under the table, “And if we solved the mystery, we’d still trust each other as much as ever…”

“Well,” Chihiro fidgeted as she spoke, “My guess is it would have to be somebody willing to die for the cause which whoever put Monobear in here with us stand for… Somebody who’ll commit a murder just to break the peace… Even if it means being executed for it…”

“Oh…” Mukuro trailed off, frowning as she looked down at her knees, “So that’s what it meant…”

“Mukuro!” Junko turned to her, earnest, “This doesn’t mean anything! Just because Monobear says somebody like that is here… it doesn’t mean that it’s true! Plus, whoever it was could have forgotten, or had a change of heart!”

“Okay,” She nodded, but didn’t quite believe her.

“Please, don’t be worried because of something I said!” Chihiro protested as she stood up, “Ohh, I’m really sorry! Really, super sorry…”

“It isn’t your fault,” Mukuro shrugged as she stood as well, “I’d rather know the meaning of the phrase anyway. Junko?” At her word, Junko stood as well, “Let’s go somewhere else for now. The library?”

“Okay,” Junko shrugged, then stepped past her sister to lead the way up to the library upstairs. Mukuro followed after nodding a farewell to her tablemates. Upon their arrival at the library, Mukuro was immediately greeted by Fukawa, leaning in way too close to her face.

“Oh good, you’re here! And my memory didn’t fail me, you _do_ have freckles,” Fukawa smirked, pulling back a small distance to have room to point at he instead, “So, riddle me this, Ikusaba! As somebody who has freckles yourself, what sort of attractive would you consider freckles to be? Cute and innocent, or sexy and beautiful…?”

“Uh,” Mukuro took a step backward, frowning, “I don’t think they’re really either…? Besides, if I said I _was_ either of those things I’d just be narcissistic…”

“Definitely cute and innocent!” Junko interrupted, bursting forward, “That’s why I always call her my cute sister, not my sexy sister, duh!”

“Hoho,” Yasuhiro stepped forward, hand over her mouth daintily as she chuckled, raising her eyebrows at Fukawa, “Will you look at that, Toukou? I was right all along.”

“That’s just one outside opinion, Taeko. It means nothing,” Fukawa shot back, crossing one arm across her chest and waving a finger in the air with the other, “We would have to take a majority vote to get anything tangible! Like when I ask what sort of aspects to include in my next doujin release in online polls!”

“And by aspects you of course mean filthy kinks?” Yasuhiro questioned, “Just another proof of your unproffesionalism compared to me. You just pander to what people want. My work has true _passion_ behind it, but you wouldn’t know anything about that,” She smirked, putting a hand on Fukawa’s shoulder, “Also, wasn’t it you who said all we needed to settle the matter was an expert opinion? Funny how you changed your mind to majority rules as soon as it was no longer in your favor…”

“Well,” Fukawa groaned, rolling her eyes behind her glasses, “There’s a lot of things I get wrong but I have to be right on this one. Freckles were one of the most voted for things, right up there with megane! They’ve come a long way from the days when they were considered unsightly…”

“Okay, but,” She tapped Fukawa’s shoulder a few times, then turned away from her and held her hands out in front of herself, “Did you ever consider… That maybe… People wanted to see that _not_ out of perceived sexiness, but actually because they were so representative of innocence? Perverts do enjoy seeing that sort of thing,” She clicked the ground with one red heel, “Innocence. Destroyed. Because you do cater to perverts, Toukou…”

“I feel somehow like we’re intruding on a conversation that we really aren’t supposed to be a part of,” Mukuro mumbled to her sister.

“What?” Fukawa questioned, then shook her head, “No, no! Taeko, we did it again, we let our banter get in the way of a conversation with somebody else… We really are both trash… Complete, utter, unburnable trash… You and me _both_.”

“Love how you can still find ways to tear me down when you get self-deprecating like that,” Yasuhiro tossed her hair, then stepped over to Junko and Mukuro, “So, you two. What did you come for the library for anyhow?”

“Well,” Mukuro looked away, scratching her cheek, “I was hoping to find some books on… illegal divination techniques,” She chuckled nervously, “Fujisaki was just telling me about some, and I got curious, I guess. She didn’t know too much about it all, since she doesn’t deal with that sort of thing herself but… Well…”

“What my sister is _trying_ to say,” Junko interrupted her, “Is that she wants to do some research since the person behind this might into some freaky fortune-telling!”

“I see,” Yasuhiro nodded, “Well, I’m no librarian, but I can certainly lead you to the section where such things would be found. Especially if you think it would help to determine what is happening to us here.”

“Yeah,” Fukawa agreed, twisting her hair between her fingers, “Even if we can’t change the way things are… I’d love to know why… Well, love may not be the right word. I’d be comforted by it, I think… Yes, that seems right.”

“This way, then,” Yasuhiro waved for Mukuro and Junko to follow after her, “Right with all the conspiracy theories, seeing as whoever organized this library was a moron who couldn’t tell the difference between new conspiracies and traditional divination methods… Both of those can be so romantic in literature and are by no means the same.”

“Well, thank you,” Mukuro nodded as the trio made their way to that section, trailed all along by Fukawa as well.


	28. Chapter 28

“This is…” Mukuro mumbled as she trawled through the third book that day, “Absolutely useless. I’m not going to find anything of interest to us here… Nothing at all…”

“Yeah,” Junko yawned, flipping the page on a much thinner book than her sister’s, “Like, it was a good idea, but none of these have details or anything. And definitely nothing that would point to why somebody would stick us all in here like this… What a pain!”

“I just want to understand,” Mukuro groaned, “I don’t care if there’s nothing we can do to fix it. I want to know why. It’s so frustrating, to think that somebody wants us to kill each other, without the faintest hint of what could be the reason…”

“Yeah, but like… Isn’t that life?” Junko shrugged, flopping onto her back, “I mean, not with things like this. Not with people saying we should commit murders, obviously, but… We never know the reason for anything, Mukuro. We never understand and it only bothers us now because it’s so out of the reach of what’s ordinary… Every day, we don’t know why things happen. And here we are now. All we can do is… Get through it all.”

“Junko…” Mukuro trailed off, lifting her hand in the air to stare at it, “How do other people know what time it is now? Without you to ask?”

“Oh yeah,” Junko sat up again, “There’s watches in the school store now, that’s how. And how people were arriving at dinner on time, y’know? Like, nice way to change the subject, Mukuro,” Junko rolled her eyes, but then laughed, “Actually, though, now that you mention it… We’ve been here all day. We should probably be getting down to dinner…”

“Yeah,” Mukuro agreed, “I can’t wait to try Asahina’s cooking… I’m sure it will be delicious.”

“Yes!!!” Junko raised her fist in the air then stood up, bouncing on her heels. As the sisters made their way out of the library they ran into Yasuhiro and Fukawa once again; Respectively, reading a manga and a romance novel, “Hey you two-”

“Ah!” Yasuhiro moved much faster than seemed possible to switch the books she and Fukawa were reading, then looked up at Junko with a confused innocence, “You were still here…?”

“Were you just…” Mukuro questioned as she stepped closer and narrowed her eyes, “Reading each other’s work?”

“Haha, of course not! You must be imagining things!” Yasuhiro laughed nervously, waving a hand in the air, “I would never read such senseless, pornographic drivel as Toukou writes! It would most certainly be a complete and utter _turn-off,/i >.”_

_“You totally were,” Junko snickered from behind her sister, and Mukuro even smirked a bit, causing both of the girls in question to flush bright red._

_“Maybe we were! But I was only reading her book so I could better understand the scope of how awful it is! How utterly worthless!” Fukawa added, pointing accusingly at Mukuro and Junko, “So don’t you dare say I was doing it for any enjoyment! I was not!”_

_“Sure you weren’t,” Junko giggled, then turned towards the door, “Anyway, we’re going down to dinner. You _lovebirds_ wanna come along, or just keep reading each other’s porn?”_

_“Shut up,” Yasuhiro narrowed her eyes as she stood up, “And, yes, we will accompany you. Wouldn’t want to go there just the two of us and cause even _more_ misconceptions regarding our connections to each other.”_

_“I’m only teasing, you know that, right?” Junko asked, laughing as she stepped out of the library._

_“Well that’s obvious!” Fukawa stood up as well, scratching her ear, “But if we don’t argue anyway, you might start thinking that your teasing is the truth! We can’t have that… If too many rumors got around, Yamada might start to objectify us _despite_ how disgusting and unattractive we both are… That man does love his yuri…”_

_“Would it really be such a bad thing to have somebody fawning over you?”Junko asked, taking long and bouncy steps as she made her way to the stairs._

_“Yes…” Fukawa muttered, clenching her fists in front of herself, “For us, the scum of the earth, we create the things which perverts enjoy but may never, ever be those things ourselves… It breaks the very balance of the universe…”_

_“Once you have become a peddler of smut,” Yasuhiro sighed, leaning her cheek on her hand in an almost dreamy manner, “You are an entirely different class of human… One who may fawn, but never be fawned over… Some may have delusions of true love to be found beyond the erotica, but we know, oh, we are so miserably aware that the only people who could ever love us… Are others on this same tier of scum… And if ever somebody should lust over us rather than our works, it is a disgrace! A sign of the apocalpyse, dare I say? Perhaps so…”_

_“You’re being overdramatic,” Mukuro groaned, rolling her eyes, “The world’s already ended, remember? And I highly doubt something as trivial as that could have contributed…”_

_“What are you expecting to do if you get votes in the popularity poll?” Junko asked, tapping her chin as she turned around to look at the pair of them again, “What sort of terrors would that bring upon our cute little shelter?”_

_“Well…” Fukawa turned, eyes wild but now clearly making a joke, “Maybe that would be what kicks us from our regular, high-school-in-a-bunker life… Into a life of killing and being killed!”_

_“Fukawa,” Mukuro frowned, crossing her arms, “That isn’t funny.”_

_“What, can’t we make jokes?” Fukawa questioned, leaning in closer to Mukuro, “It’s not like anything is actually gonna end up happening. We’re high school kids,” She looked away, “Some of us are mean, or weird, or gross… but there’s no way we’d end up killing each other just because somebody said we should… I know that much. We have morals, and good sense, and we’re _trying_ , so…” She muttered, “I guess that last shelter was just full of people even more disgusting than me and Taeko.”_

_“That’s…” Mukuro trailed off, staring at Fukawa just before the door to the cafeteria._

_“Toukou is correct,” Yasuhiro nodded, smiling soft, “Did you not consider that point? Nobody here has refrained from building friendships, and nobody here is the sort to murder a friend in cold blood. We just don’t have it in us.”_

_With those words, Mukuro felt for the first time since her arrival at Hope’s Peak, a sense of relief. Real relief. A thought that maybe everything _could_ turn out okay. She had gotten close with the kindness from Hagakure, but now, with this new logic… Of course. Unless they gave in to fear, nobody here could do something like this. She trusted her classmates. The fear was born of a situation, but if she considered her peers on an individual level, she had nothing to worry about._


	29. Chapter 29

Mukuro, Junko, Fukawa, and Yasuhiro stepped into the cafeteria once the reassuring conversation on the nature of the students, only to find they were the last group to arrive. Everyone else was already seated. Mukuro made her way over and sat down across from Asahina, which was also next to Kirigiri with enough space on her left for the others she had come in with. Junko sat nearest to her of course.

“Good, we are all gathered,” Oogami noted, then stood up so that everyone would pay attention to her, “As I’m sure you all very well know, I am Sakura Oogami, the Super High School Level Hall Monitor. For this purpose, it seems that the only way I would be of use here would be to enforce rules. But, with the rules being enforced by Monobear, and being so abstract, there were none for me to enforce. Anarchy could run loose in this building at any time. Therefore, I conferred with the student council to draw up a disciplinary plan.”

Kirigiri stood up, and motioned for the rest of the student council to do so as well when she began to talk, “This is correct. Now, the rules are simple, as are the punishments. There will be no fighting. No public indecency. No vandalism of the shelter. Simple things to maintain an atmosphere without chaos or danger. Punishments will be primarily work duties, such as chores or gardening. Should you do something outstandingly wrong, you will be referred to a written counseling session with Yasuke Matsuda; Though I trust such things will not be necessary with this group of students. Thank you.”

She nodded and sat down again, the other members being seated in tandem with her this time, making it much more graceful than when they had stood. Everyone turned to Asahina and thanked her for the food before beginning to eat the curry she’d prepared, though she looked nervous. Mukuro assumed it was only because she feared for the quality of her food, but she had nothing to worry about. It was hard to mess up curry. Then again, it wasn’t quite as top notch as Asahina had boasted, and almost a bit... easy, but maybe she’d just lost track of time and needed to get something made quick.

In any case, it was nothing to worry about. Mukuro smiled as she finished eating, then laid her spoon down next to the plate. Curry was always a comforting dish, and she felt just like going straight to bed and curling up in the blankets; after all, it was too late at night to _nap_ anymore. The warm feeling didn’t even make her sleepy, just made her want to go and be cozy.

That dream was not to come true, however. At least, not for a little while. Once everybody was finished eating, she was approached by Maizono, clutching her hands in front of herself and looking afraid, “Mukuro...? I’ve got something to, uh, to ask you...”

“Well, ask away,” Mukuro shrugged, looking up at her. She’d seen Maizono in quite a number of unfortunate states, but being this timid or nervous had never been one of them. It seemed almost like she regretted whatever it was that she was about to say.

“It’s nothing much, it’s just... when I was up in the art room earlier today, I heard some weird noises. Like there was something wrong with the lights, and I know you probably can’t do a lot, but could you maybe just take a look for me anyway?” She questioned, squishing her hands together closer. No, it wasn’t regret that Mukuro thought she saw. It was fear. She was scared of something more than just some lights.

“We can totally take a look at that tomorrow!” Junko offered, grinning as she raised her hands up, “But like, we’re showing some old game show episodes in the AV room tonight and a lot of people are going so I gotta set it up!”

“It’ll only take a minute,” Maizono mumbled, looking away, “And you know nobody will be there, in the hustle of preparing for the activity, right? Can’t you just go now, really quickly? If you go fast there might still be time to-” She cut herself off, covering her mouth and looking around, panicked.

“Time to what?” Junko questioned, craning her neck to try and see what Maizono could possibly be searching for.

“Junko,” Mukuro grabbed her arm, frowning, “Who cares...? She’s worried. I think that we should just go do it,” She didn’t know what somebody like Maizono could be so afraid of, but she knew that if she and her sister didn’t stand up for her, they could lose her trust.

“Okay, but, super fast!” Junko assured her, then nodded to Maizono as she took off with Mukuro’s arm gripped tightly, pulling her along at a run she could barely keep up with to the higher floor. Once there, they stepped into the art room and both looked around, “Huh. No weird noises at all...”

“No,” Mukuro shook her head, but continued looking, “There is something odd, though. Look,” She pointed at the wall of supplies, “There’s a palette knife missing from the row.”

“You’re right,” Junko stepped closer, looking at the wall herself with scrutiny, “Did Ishimaru forget to put the one back he was arguing with Oogami over? I know they totally settled that...”

“No,” Mukuro crossed her arms, “It’s not the same one, and you’re right. It was settled. And Oogami’s been watching everyone like a hawk, you may have noticed. A palette knife is a weird shape, hard to hide,” She scoped around the room again, “I guess we’d need Leon’s help to find it, but I think it’s just left somewhere in this room out of sight...”

“You’re quite the detective yourself, Mukuro!” Junko joked, poking her sister’s cheek, “You really sure you don’t have _that_ talent after all?”

“You know as well as I do my only talent’s luck. Sometimes I’m just lucky enough to do well at other things, momentarily,” She shrugged, then dropped her arms to put her hands in her pockets. A second later, she felt a large hand on her shoulder, and turned to see Hagakure standing next to her.

“Thank goodness... Somebody’s here...” He muttered, leaning his weight on her shoulder an uncomfortable amount, “Ikusaba... Enoshima... do you know the first rule of gambling...?” He was leaning even more now. Mukuro and Junko both shook their heads.

“Well, you know, it’s...” He coughed once, then his voice turned gutteral, “Don’t trust... Anyone...” He collapsed, and Mukuro fell, between his body and the floor. His body. His _corpse_.

The blood blossoming out from his back was proof enough of that.


	30. Chapter 30

Mukuro was petrified. She couldn’t move, and it was connected both to her shock and the fact that there was a very large corpse on top of her. Two things which would in fact contribute to an inability to do anything but lay there, silent and wide-eyed, the only sounds even _trying_ to escape taking the form of pathetic whimpers. Junko stared down at her, shaking. The world rung in her ears, and her legs tensed, but she ran to the doorway.

Junko leaned as far out of the door as she could without taking both feet out of the art room, yelling. Her voice sounded echoing, distant to Mukuro as she called down the hallway, “Help! Help, somebody, please! Please!!” She shouted as loud as she consciously could, squeezing her eyes shut. She turned to stare back at her pinned sister; she knew there was no way she could move Hagakure, she was a programmer. Muscle mass was a foreign concept.

Everyone was downstairs. Nobody was here to help and she couldn’t yell loud enough to be heard as far away as everyone was bound to be. Everyone except… whoever had killed Hagakure. Her heart pounded in her chest and she grimaced, wringing her hands before squeezing her eyes shut and sprinting down the hallway. Don’t think about it, don’t think about it. She just kept yelling for help. Shouting, screaming for somebody to please come and help her, and she found the stairwell by memory and practically jumped down it, calling for anyone at all to help her, she didn’t even care if the murderer was who heard her as long as they would get that corpse off of her sister.

More floors, more shouting, until a small crowd came running to see her. Maizono, who didn’t seem surprised but was evidently shaken by Junko’s cries for help, as if she already knew the gruesome reason and was preemptively horrified. Togami, who just sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose at her hysterics… and Leon, who would of course come to investigate something like this.

“Enoshima? What in the world is spurring you to such-” Togami questioned, only to be cut off by her hyperventilated next words.

“Mukuro… Upstairs… She’s,” Junko gasped, then wrapped her arms around herself and fell onto the ground. Leon crouched down to pick her up off the tile.

“She fainted…” He explained, looking up at the other two who had come running.

“Of course she did…” Maizono mumbled, holding her hands close to herself and looking away, “After all, she was separated from her sister… And who knows for what reason… I just hope that if somebody’s dead it isn’t Mukuro,” She closed her eyes and clicked her tongue in annoyance, “If it was, then Junko would also be practically dead…”

“Shouldn’t you be wishing that nobody was dead? But of course…” He shook his head, sighing, “What else should I expect from somebody who became known nationwide for her spectacular talents in mass murder?”

“Togami!” She snapped at him, turning around, “I swear, I don’t want anybody here to die! Not even you! None of you are disgusting… Not really… Nobody should die here… Nobody should have…” She held herself, looking down at the floor, “It should have been fine… Should have been fine… Why…”

“Look, we need to get upstairs. Then we can start figuring things out. Maybe Ikusaba just injured herself,” Leon stood up straight, attempting to lift Junko but then setting her down again without the arm strength to bring her up a set of stairs comfortably. He turned to look at Togami, who groaned but then leaned down to lift her up bridal-style. Playing baseball didn’t make him a beefcake or anything, but he was stronger than Leon nonetheless, enough to carry Junko without too much effort.

The group made their way upstairs, led by Maizono given that she knew the last place that the siblings were going to be. The art room, which was in fact the proper destination. Mukuro was no longer conscious, though it was unclear if that was a result of the weight on top of her or the shock of her sister running way from her, but that only stood out to Maizono. Togami and Leon were both more in shock by the corpse there, and while they were busy reeling Maizono had already set to work on rolling him off of Mukuro.

“S-Sayaka…” Leon forced words out through his surprise, “Don’t… tamper with the crime scene… That’s-”

“Oh, shut up Leon,” She hissed at him, but then went wide-eyed and blushed in embarrassment, “I… Sorry. Just…” She sighed, looking away, “She was suffocating, Leon…”

“R-right…” He mumbled, stepping forward, “I guess that’s fine, then… I was just, on instinct, I’m sorry Sayaka, I must seem so-”

“Heartless? No, you’re in shock,” She shrugged, then tucked her hair back behind her ears, revealing her eyepatch in full view for possibly the first time since she’d arrived. Without the hair falling in her face she looked much less like a horror movie, but her remaining eye was still glassy and blank, “So you’re doing what you know best. If anyone’s heartless here it’s me, for caring more about my living friend than the fact that somebody’s been killed. Do I care about Yasuhiro Hagakure? I’m not sure. I just wish nobody… had died. So I won’t let this corpse make another one, okay?”

“In any case,” Togami frowned, “Shouldn’t we alert the others before investigating?”

“Upupupu!” Monobear’s voice crackled over the intercom, “Wouldja look at that! A body has been DISCOVERED!! What a big surprise, eh? Well, I can’t stand the suspense, so you’ll find a file with the autopsy in your electronic student IDs, but I guess I’ll let you figure out where it is… this time!” 

“It did it for us…” Leon frowned, looking up at the intercom speaker, “So I guess all we have left to do is start figuring out who could have done this-”

“One more thing, you silly bastards! You only have… Twenty minutes to investigate! Is that really enough time for your detective to find all the evidence? You’ll have to conduct your own investigations too… And I’m sure you’ll all jump to different conclusions, Upupu! I can’t wait to see how the trial goes!”


	31. Chapter 31

When Mukuro woke up, there was no longer a weight on her, though she still saw a dead body the moment she opened her eyes. Hagakure was there. This was real, and he was there, and he was dead. His blood was on her clothes. Taking a few deep breaths to compose herself, she sat up, then took note of her surroundings. Junko was lying on the ground a few feet away, and other classmates were milling about, eyes squinted. Clearly, investigating.

“Ikusaba!” Naegi greeted her, the first one to notice she’d woken. He leaned down and held a hand out to her, which she took for help getting to her feet. Once standing, she took another look around while he continued talking to her, “Just in time, but… I hope your sister wakes up soon, too. We only have two minutes left till the trial starts, after all…”

“My sister…” Mukuro gave a slow nod as she looked over at Junko on the ground, frowning, “Naegi, why did she pass out? The corpse only fell on me, after all... I think, anyway…”

“She fainted because she had to run all the way downstairs to let us know that a corpse had fallen on you,” He explained, putting a hand on her shoulder, “I guess she fainted because she couldn’t handle being that far away from you… That’s what Maizono, Togami, and Leon said anyhow. They were the ones she was first able to tell about your predicament. Are… you okay? Breathing right, you’re not hurt?”

“Mostly, I’m fine,” She assured him, then stepped closer to Junko, “I can breathe, and I don’t have any real injuries as far as I can tell. But, Junko…”

“I mean, I know nobody here is a medical professional, but Enoshima seems fine to me. Just recovering from the shock,” Naegi offered, then one of the other investigators stepped forward.

“I’m sure that,” Chihiro noted, “As long as you’re in the same room as her when she wakes up, she won’t be any worse for wear… After she said she would protect me, I did a read on her, and nothing seemed negative, so… At least for now I don’t think your sister is in danger, Ikusaba.”

“Thank you, Fujisaki…” Mukuro sighed, holding her hands in close to her chest as she started to try and investigate herself, but in this room there was nothing more to be seen aside from the corpse. There was a knife wound in Hagakure’s back, as she determined from the autopsy sent to her card. That could have been the palette knife which she’d noted as missing in the room, but… maybe that was what the culprit wanted them to think. She’d have to keep an open mind about the case until she heard the evidence that other people had gathered in the trial, “Er… what if Junko doesn’t wake up before the trial…?”

“That bear,” Sakura joined the conversation, “Has made it clear that everyone is expected there. Therefore, if your sister hasn’t awakened by that time, I will carry her,” She offered, then leaned down to pick up Junko, “Which, as it seems, will be necessary with the amount of time necessary. I should warn you, Ikusaba… There are some among us who would believe you and Enoshima to be the culprit. I do not, seeing as it is an absurd idea, but be ready to defend yourselves.”

“Okay,” Mukuro nodded, though she wasn’t sure how she could defend herself. The body had been found on top of her, and she and Junko were the only people who’d been on this floor if the fact that Junko needed to go all the way to the first floor for help was any indication… Although the real killer could have ducked into a room and ignored her, signs did point to the sisters who could be placed in the art room at that time beyond a doubt.

“Okay, folks! Investigation is over, please gather in the entry hall to find the elevator which will take you to the courtroom!” The bear’s voice filled the room, and Mukuro started to move, making sure to walk beside Sakura so that she’d be able to be seen as soon as Junko was awake. As it was, Junko ended up waking as soon as they got into the elevator.

“Uh…” She turned her head to face Mukuro, “What’s going on… Are you okay, Mukuro…?”

“Yeah, Junko,” She nodded, as Sakura put her down onto her feet, “We were both unconscious for a while, and now we’re on our way to the trial to try and figure out who killed Hagakure…”

“Oh…” Junko nodded slowly as she got her bearings, then frowned, “That’s right, he died, didn’t he… That’s not good…”

“No, it isn’t,” Mukuro agreed as she put a hand on her sister’s shoulder, wondering who could have possibly broken their peace. Then she remembered. Remembered what had been said about a hound dog, and she understood. Somebody was getting them started. Breaking the threshold of belief that nobody here would commit a murder. Whoever had done this was involved in causing the situation.

Whoever had done this put everyone here in danger, so Mukuro knew that she needed to find out who the culprit was, for real. There was no way she could afford to be wrong, but… There was another challenge. If she was right, that the culprit was in on this shelter’s situation, then she wanted to get as much information as she could out of them before making an accusation.

So she steeled herself, mentally prepared for the trial, but there was one thing she couldn’t have prepared for, one thing she could have never expected; when the elevator doors slid open. In front of her was a courtroom; a rather fancy one, too. A courtroom, in the shelter. Built in to the shelter. Everything about this _hurt_ her, it was a realization, a fearful one. There was a courtroom here. This wasn’t a simple hijacking. Whoever did this had money, power, the ability to get in and modify this _fallout_ shelter to have a courtroom for homicide trials.

Either that, or it was here from the beginning.

Both options were terrifying.


	32. Chapter 32

It took Mukuro a moment to get over her schock, but she did. She managed. Slowly, she made her way over to one of the podium-like standees in the room, the one which had her name on it. There was even one for Hagakure, with a sign in front of it. A grey sign, with an X through it which looked to be done in blood. Was it… his blood? She covered her mouth and looked down at her own podium, squeezing her eyes shut. Despite having seen the body… Having had the body fall on top of her, this still hurt her. It showed a grim, bizarre sense of humor.

She didn’t have time to worry about composing herself, however, because as soon as everybody was standing at their respected podiums, that bear appeared again, now sitting on a chair at the head of the courtroom. Like a judge. She turned to look at Junko, who was covering her ears. That’s right, she’d already heard anything that bear could say in polite company, since it was prerecorded. Or so she thought.

“Welcome one and all to the very first, but certainly not last, murder trial! Yasuhiro Hagakure has been _brutally murdered_! Stabbed in the back with a knife! That’s what the autopsy says anyway! So I say, who will you find guilty? Will you get to the bottom of this, or will you execute an innocent and subject yourselves to the will of the real murderer? It’s all so exciting, and there’s no way to know what will happen!” It laughed, and as it spoke, Junko slowly pulled her hands away from her ears, “Oh right, Enoshima… You told them that I wouldn’t be able to say specifics in this sort of situation, didn’t you? Too bad that’s not true…”

“So she’s a liar…” Mondo muttered, clenching his fists, “Is there much of a trial to be had here? Those sisters were in the art room where the body was found, and Enoshima is clearly not a trustworthy as we seemed to think… Nobody else was on that floor, right?”

“Mondo…” Chihiro gave him a harsh whisper, and he shrunk.

“Well...:” Togami frowned, pushing his glasses up his nose, “Not that we saw, but we didn’t check the other rooms on the floor. Another culprit could have easily been there and just hidden from view, rejoining us after the announcement was made…”

“What do you know anyway!?” Asahina snapped at him, scowling, “You play baseball, that doesn’t make you smart. I bet… that Enoshima did it. I trust Ikusaba, but her sister’s kinda scary. Not to mention all that stuff she _supposedly_ learned about our situation. She lied about Monobear, and how would she have learned this stuff in the first place? It’s just a claim, that she got files, but have any of us even heard any of it?”

“I… did,” Mukuro spoke up, quiet, “But I guess you wouldn’t take _my_ word for it…”

“No, we wouldn’t,” Yamada spoke up, “It’s pretty clear that you two are the biggest suspects here. And you aren’t giving us reason to believe that you’re trustworthy.”

“I think they’ve given us plenty of reason!” Kirigiri interrupted, pointing towards the center of the courtroom, bracelts jangling, “Enoshima and Ikusaba have been looking out for all of us from day one. They are members of our student council. They’ve done nothing to make us think they would ever do something like this, or lie to us. Chances are Enoshima was mistaken on the matter of Monobear, it most certainly was not an act of deception.”

“You say this, but…” Leon spoke up, “You need to consider the fact that perhaps, everything before this incident was an act of deception. Building our trust in them so that they could easily get away with it when they decided to strike,” As he said this, several people (the sisters’ supporters) turned to look at him in shock, notably Kirigiri and Maizono.

“Leon, how…” Maizono stammered, her single eye wide and a knife; not the butcher knife, but a butterfly knife held close to herself, “How could you…? Junko and Mukuro, they’re… They’re our friends… Why would you…”

“Well,” Taeko spoke up, “Seeing as the late Hagakure’s first name is the same as my last, I would be remiss to say that his death did not impact me. Thus, I will participate in this trial. For that matter, I should say that the _friends_ of a super high school level murderer seem quite likely to be the murderers themselves, wouldn’t you agree?”

“No,” Maizono spoke in a harsh stage whisper, “No, no no no, that can’t be true, it can’t be… There’s no way… It wasn’t them! It wasn’t!”

“Oh?” Taeko raised an eyebrow, leaning forward on her podium and resting her chin in her hand, “How can you be so sure? Unless… it was you who did it, then there’s no way-”

“Yasuhiro,” Togami spoke, cutting her off, “That’s enough. It’s evident you are only standing against these two because I am defending them. Please, set your grudges aside long enough to get the facts straight. To begin… Why were the victim and our two suspects in that part of the school to begin with? It hardly makes sense, for the girl who would be preparing tonight’s activity to go all the way up to the art room…”

“It doesn’t,” Junko shrugged, looking away, “In fact, I protested against going up there, but… Mukuro made me,” She paused, then quickly waved her hands in front of her upon realizing she’d implicated her sister, “Don’t get us wrong! Mukuro only made me because we were asked, by Maizono. She said she had a feeling that something might go wrong, and that maybe we could stop it, or something like that?”

“So…” Ishimaru spoke up, glaring at Maizono, “It’s entirely possible, isn’t it, that she killed him… and framed you by making sure that you were in that general area at the time? And the reason she’s holding a different knife at the moment is because that chef’s knife she was carrying… Is covered in blood?”

“Of course…” Sakura gave a slow nod, “She could have gotten back downstairs to the group who Junko called for, if she was this… hound dog, Monobear mentioned to Enoshima, then she would know shortcuts. Concealing the bloodied knife would not be difficult…”

“No, that can’t be,” Maizono shook her head, “I returned that knife already, so people could make dinner with it, that’s why I’m using this one now… It should be in the knife block right now.”

“I know something else which could have made the wound, but it points back to our original culprits,” Fukawa spoke up, “A palette knife. They have those in the art room.”


	33. Chapter 33

“No, that’s impossible too,” Mukuro spoke up, “I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but I was definitely in the art room when Hagakure was killed, and every palette knife was in that room.”

“How can you say that?” Naegi asked, turning to her with the slightest bit of doubt in his mind, “There was one missing from the collection in that room…”

“Yes, there was,” Leon corroborated, but then a smirk came across his face, “However, somehow… Ikusaba noticed the very same thing which I did. There was one missing from the collection, but it clearly never left the room. It was caked in clay, lying in the corner of the room, on the floor. No way it could have been used as a murder weapon. Even if somebody tried to cover it up with clay… what was on the knife was far too dry to be added as a recent coverup.”

“I see, so…” Naegi bit his lip as he glanced at Asahina, “This means that now, the most likely suspect would have to be whoever cooked dinner…”

“Not necessarily,” Ishimaru interrupted again, crossing his arms, “The question still stands of _why_ Hagakure was near the art room. Now that the idea that Maizono set the girls up has been dispelled… Well, I should say whoever sent Hagakure that direction would be suspect.”

“It wasn’t me,” Maizono shook her head, pulling hair over her face to hide as she looked as if she was about to cry, “I had a bad feeling about the art room… Why would I send a scatter-brained gambler up there? I asked our reliable student council president and her sister, I had confidence that those two would… Be able to solve whatever problem arose…”

“A good question,” Taeko smirked a bit as well, “Who _would_ send such an irresponsible man up there? It has to have been the murderer, perhaps planning to frame… Touko? By making it seem as if the murder had occurred near the art room. Especially if the time of death was left up to interpretation, and Touko was the one to discover the body…”

“Why would anybody want to frame me?” Fukawa asked, but even as she did, her eyes fell on Togami across the room.

“Me?” Togami questioned, putting a hand to his chest in offense, “Why, I would never speak to that man, let alone send him to his death. Regardless, how could I do something like that? Send Hagakure up to the art room, then commit the murder, _and_ be a part of the party who helped Enoshima when she came crying to us about the corpse on her sister? That seems like a number of places to be at once…”

“Yes, but,” Asahina shrugged, “I mean, baseball makes you run fast.”

“Oh, yes, because dashing all around the school wouldn’t draw _any_ attention to myself. When Enoshima found me, I wasn’t out of breath in any way, was I? In fact…” He looked to Leon, “You can alibi me, can’t you, Kuwata?”

“Togami definitely didn’t seem like he’d been running. Breathing normal, no sweat, nothing,” Junko added in.

“And I can alibi him. In fact, I can also alibi Sayaka…” Leon sighed, “I would have preferred to get the information out before eliminating suspects, but I was speaking with Sayaka and Togami from moments after Sayaka directed those siblings to the fourth floor right up until Enoshima came looking for us. And yes, Sayaka’s request to them didn’t seem malicious, although a bit desperate. She said something about… them being able to prevent it if they got there in time.”

All eyes were on Maizono. The weight of that statement… Ishimaru was the first to speak on its significance, “Maizono, does that mean… you knew that the murder would occur?”

“I…” Maizono trailed off, looking away with her lip wobbling before resolve stiffened in her eye and her voice became more steady, “Well, you see-” She found herself cut off, however.

“Goddammit!” Mondo slammed his hands down on his podium, “I can’t just sit here and listen while you all accuse a girl like that! You’re going to make her reveal her secret, and then she’ll be killed, and let me tell you that secret isn’t a murder,” He clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, only to open them again and stare at Chihiro, “Maizono and I were both visited by Monobear. It told us the time and location of the first murder, and gave us strict rules. We could not mention this knowledge to anybody, and we could not go to that location at that time. Or we would be… executed for breaking the rules…”

Chihiro was just watching him at this point, tears pricking her eyes, and he just took another deep breath before looking Monobear right in the face, “So I guess I’ll give myself up. I may as well be the murderer anyway… Hagakure was the only person who would listen to me without questioning, when I said he could prevent a misfortune near the art room. But I played right into the mastermind’s hands… I sent him to his death… I’m just as bad as the real killer, so-”

“Well, I’m not gonna kill you,” Monobear shrugged, causing Mondo’s head to snap up and his fists to release the podium in surprise, “Upupu! Funny how you both thought those rules extended to the trial, it sure made it more interesting! Actually, the rule was that you couldn’t say I told you that until the murder occurred, but I guess you were too scared to realize that loophole I left for you! But, of course, this changes the trial in another way… How in the world will you find the culprit now that ‘the one who sent Hagakure’ wasn’t allowed on that floor?”

“Well, we’re back to where we were before we were set on that track,” Sakura shrugged, “The person who had that knife… The person who cooked dinner…” She frowned as she realized who she would need to accuse, but Ishimaru beat her to it.

“The killer is you, Aoi Asahina!”


	34. Chapter 34

“Me?” Asashina questioned, first shocked, then her face twisting into anger as she pointed straight back at Ishimaru, “But, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, I didn’t cook dinner tonight, you did!”

“Nonsense,” Ishimaru waved her off, “It’s your name on the signup sheet, isn’t it? That was some very nice curry that you made for all of us, by the way, but that isn’t going to get you off the hook for the murder that you committed.”

“No…” She shook her head, gripping the front of her podium, “Listen here, asshole! If you’re gonna ask me to switch dinner nights with you, and tell nobody about it, you can’t turn around and accuse me of murder! I never would have agreed if I’d known you were going to make such a boring curry… It’s an insult! An insult to me and my entire gang, that you would label something that pedestrian as being made by me! It was decent, but I could barely bring myself to eat it! And the thanks I got, the compliments that were fine… But I knew I could do so much better… Not only have you accused me of murder, but you’ve brought disgrace upon a foodie who can totally kick your ass, soldier or no!”

“Upupu! Order in the court!” Monobear slammed a gavel, “Enough of this shouting match! I’m sure _one_ of you can figure out how to resolve this situation and determine who really had kitchen access tonight!”

“Well…” Mukuro finally spoke again, voice soft, but everyone gave her their attention as soon as she made a sound, “Isn’t that obvious? A curry competition. We figure out which person’s curry tastes the most like the one that we had tonight… And that’s how we’ll figure out who really cooked dinner. If Asahina is lying to save her skin… or if Ishimaru is lying to save his.”

“You’re on!” Asahina grinned, flexing her arm.

“Isn’t it obvious she’s lying?” Ishimaru waved to her, “I’ll do the competition of course, but I do hope none of you believe this vagrant’s word over a soldier’s honor. Why in the world would I ever ask to switch dinner duty in secret?”

“So you could pin the murder on me if it came down to the wire like this, that’s why,” Asahina retorted, then turned to Monobear, “So, how are we going to have this competition?”

“Easy!!” Monobear clapped its hands, and the pair’s podiums lowered into the floor only to be replaced with Food-Network style cooking stations in front of them both, accompanied with all the ingredients and spices anyone might need for a good curry, “Did you ever see the American show, Cutthroat Kitchen? Well, there are no sabotages this time around, but it _is_ high-stakes, since you’re playing for your lives!”

“Right!” Asahina agreed, then immediately got to work, as did Ishimaru. Both of them seemed confident, toiling away at the curry, and everyone else in the courtroom just sort of watched, confused and enthralled by the bizarre turn of events. Within about forty-five minutes, the curries were complete, and the pair of suspects handed over their servings to Monobear, who labeled them A and B then handed them out. Nobody commented on it until Mukuro, however.

“Hm…” She muttered, giving a blank stare at the two containers, “Well, this is strange. Curry A is much _worse_ than what we had for dinner, while curry B is much better. Would you agree with me…?” There were nods all around, so she sighed, “Well, that’s unfortunate. Neither of these taste similar enough, but…” She narrowed her eyes and took another bite of each, “Oh. Well, I’m no expert, but Curry A… has the same base flavor profile, but then appears to have been sabotaged. Maybe to… disguise the fact it was the same curry.”

“Now that you mention it…” Togami muttered, “My high level education,” He glared at Asahina, “Leaving me an intellectual despite my talent being one of sports, allows me to make that distinction as well.”

“Same here,” Naegi joined in, raising his hand, “My memory’s not the best, but underneath the copious amounds of salt and paprika, the profile is the same. I, er… need to be able to tell these things, as the heir to a powerful company… Since, well… There is the danger of poisoning.”

“It’s easy to forget that’s what your talent is,” Kirigiri chuckled a bit, then held up her cups of curry, “I can’t really tell what’s in it like you two, and… Ikusaba somehow can, but I know. Whoever made Curry A is definitely guilty. So… whose was it?”

“Upupu!” Monobear stood up and twirled around, “Curry A belongs to Kiyotaka Ishimaru! And curry B belongs to Aoi Asahina! Now that you know that, use your podiums to cast your votes for who the culprit is!”

“Wait,” Mukuro held her hand up, “I’m not arguing with you, but I want to hear what the real story is. Ishimaru… What happened?”

“You already know what happened,” He raised a hand to his forehead in a salute, and closed his eyes, “I am devoted to my cause. I was the hound dog. I planned this from the moment you suggested that there be a sign-up sheet for who would cook dinner. If I got away with it… then I could keep only those who deserved to be kept. As it is, however, you will need to suffer more, if you choose to execute me for this crime,” He lowered his hand, “Wouldn’t you prefer to reach a state of completion, such as that in the shelter prior to ours… Sooner? Rather than going slowly, being driven to kill… Distrusting each other. It’s your choice, when you vote.”

“Upupu! That’s boring!” The bear laughed, and Ishimaru looked at it in horror, “I don’t care about a state of completion! I just want to have fun, watching these trials and executing people!”

“That’s not what we-”

“Upupu! Did you even pay attention to who was left in the prior shelter!? ANyway,” Monobear turned to the others, “Do you really want to let a madman like this decide who lives or dies?”

“Of course not,” Kirigiri narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, “After he’s gone, after all, we may not experience another murder. We know he was acting on outside orders, yes? So none _among_ us would do something like this. We have no reason to distrust anyone else here now that this is over.”

The podiums lit up. Everyone voted.

“Now, on with the execution!” Monobear exclaimed with glee, “And you’re all going to watch.”


	35. Chapter 35

“Wait…” Mukuro stepped back from her podium, staring as Ishimaru was dragged away from the courtroom, “We have to w-watch him die?”

“Well…” Monobear trailed off, then laughed, “Upupu! Short answer is yes! I mean, you _could_ close your eyes, cover your ears, and look away… But then I’d have to execute you too! The purpose of the executions is of course, to instill despair in you…”

“Despair…?” Maizono asked, wringing her hands and appearing to be deep in thought, though she didn’t look away, “That’s…” Something about that word, despair… it disturbed her, made her visibly uncomfortable, “You really think that… they could pull off something like this…?” She seemed almost offended by the thought.

“Of course,” Naegi shrugged, “They’re a terrorist organization, with a lot of money… right?” He was very confident about his statement, but still asked for confirmation.

“Right,” Kirigiri agreed with a decisive nod, “I have no doubts that the despairs could have done something like this… Even from the miniscule info I heard about them. My managers, they thought that those people posed a threat to me, so I often eavesdropped on them speaking on the matter of it.”

“Enough of this!’ Monobear shouted, “What does it matter? It’s time, for a gleefully despairing execution, upupu!” It jumped up in its seat, then pointed to a screen above its head.

[ REVERSE FIRING RANGE ]  
Read the screen until it faded away to show a single person standing at a target, armed with a rifle. Across from this figure stood a line of soldiers, similarly armed, with Ishimaru at the very end of them. All of them, even Ishimaru, were firing at the figure on the target, but it just kept on moving, dodging the bullets with a fluid grace. After each round, the target loaded its rifle and took out one in the line of soldiers, starting furthest from Ishimaru.

These soldiers were fake, animatronics rigged to shoot rifles, but when shot, they bled. Blood spattered back onto the camera lens, only for a winking Monobear to wipe it off with a rag, as if that was just a cute and silly mistake rather than a sign of someone being murdered. Yes, it was a fake person, but soon enough… it wouldn’t be. This was obvious. Ishimaru kept firing in sync with the animatronics, but he was sweating, panicked.

It was obvious he feared for his life, and the remaining students almost regretted voting for him; except, they knew he was the culprit. It would have been worse, to vote for an innocent and see them executed in this fashion, but this was still horrifying. It was unceremonious, just like every animatronic, when Ishimaru was shot. Except, his blood spattered more, and his corpse fell to the ground visibly before the lights above him went out like they had with the others.

Mukuro tore her eyes away when the curtains closed, and found everyone else in a similar state. Entranced, fearful, all color drained from their faces. Even Maizono, who had seen so many people die before, was put off by the brutal display. A good number of Mukuro’s classmates were trembling as well. She stepped away and closed her eyes, crossing her arms over her stomach and stumbling, though Junko ran forward to catch her before she fell over.

“J-Junko, I…” Mukuro stammered out, leaning against her sister, “How could this happen? How could I let this happen?”

“Mukuro…” She whispered back, holding her sister tight, “Don’t talk like that, okay? It’s not your fault. There’s no way… that you could have prevented this. It wasn’t your responsibility… This sort of thing couldn’t be _anyone’s_ responsibility."

“No, it was, it was…” Mukuro shook her head, sobbing, “I was the student council president…! It was my job, my responsibility…” She trailed off, “Everyone trusted me to do this… Everyone hoped, that I… Could keep them safe…”

 

“Ikusaba,” Naegi stepped closer to her, holding a hand out, “Nobody blames you. And… Kirigiri was right. Nobody else is going to be killed now that Ishimaru is gone. We have no reason to expect anyone else will be a murderer, with this so-called hound dog gone. He failed to plant the seeds of distrust that he intended… I’m sure of this fact.”

“I am as well,” Kirigiri agreed, moving to stand next to Naegi, “Us four, the student council, we must continue to uphold our duties. There is nobody here anymore… Who wants us to be at odds with each other. Now that the hound dog is gone, we will work towards a better future for everyone. This, I can assure you.”

“...I hope so,” Junko agreed, and the rest of her peers nodded as well before they turned and walked back to the elevator through whcih they’d arrived in the courtroom. Everyone was solemn and silent, nobody speaking a word on the elevator or following it. Everyone went to their rooms without a second thought, without saying anything else to each other. Once in the room she shared with Junko, Mukuro just dropped onto her bed immediately and curled up on top of the comforter. She couldn’t forgive herself, even if everyone else said she should.

She was a student of Hope’s Peak Academy. It was her only virtue, luck, which gave her the virtue of being a student there. So she had two virtues. Luck, and hope, didn’t she? And that was the problem. The only way she had to be useful… Was to represent hope for her school. If she couldn’t do that, then what was she even doing here? If she couldn’t rely on her luck, as it surely would have been a display of luck for Ishimaru to have given up on his cause rather than commit a murder… She was extraneous.

“Mukuro,” Junko spoke, leaning over the edge of the top bunk to look at her sister, “You’re not still… Feeling guilty, are you? I’ll leave you alone if you’re just sad… I am too, but, knowing you… Please understand that nobody blames you but yourself.”

“...Junko, I shouldn’t be here,” She muttered, holding her knees close to her chest and staring at the far wall, “I entered the raffle so I could stay with you, and somehow I won. That’s not a talent worth carrying to the future. It’s pathetic, honestly. I stole this chance from somebody else, just so that I wouldn’t lose you…”

“That’s just not true,” Junko protested, then climbed down to sit next to Mukuro, “I need you here. Besides, remember what I told you? I have talent, you have luck… I’m loud and crude, you’re quiet and sociable… I’m beautiful and you’re pretty,” She laughed a bit at that last one, but it was very brief before she started to pet her sister’s hair, “I said between the two of us we have a functioning person, but I don’t think that’s true. Between the two of us, we have a perfect person.”

“And,” Junko continued with a sweet smile, “As members of the student council, we have to be their hope. I can’t do that, and you can’t do that, but together… No matter what happens. We need to stay a shining light for our classmates.”


	36. Chapter 36

The next morning, Mukuro woke up slowly. She didn’t remember falling asleep, and she was still exhausted, but she couldn’t just lie around in bed all day. That… wasn’t something which she could allow herself to do. No matter how depressed she was over recent developments, she couldn’t let it stop her from continuing on. She remembered what her sister had said. As a member of the student council, it was her responsibility to be a guiding light. This was more true for her than for anyone else on the council, because it was the only responsibility somebody like her could ever hope to have.

Hope… that was the opposite of despair, wasn’t it? Now that she thought about it, that had to be the case. Hope was what she had to carry her through this all, and hope was what she could work hard to give to everybody else. The activities she had planned with the council would continue on as usual, and everyone would try to forget that they were short two members of their miniscule student body. Mukuro dragged herself out of bed, then looked around the room, arms hugged around herself, “Junko?”

“I’m in the shower!” Junko called back from behind the slightly ajar bathroom door, “How did you sleep, Mukuro?”

Mukuro went to lean against the wall the bathroom door was on and slid down to the carpet, holding her knees to her chest, “I slept fine. No nightmares or anything. I don’t dream a lot, anyway, but I’m glad I slept too soundly. If I did have nightmares they’d have been awful. How about you?”

“Same here,” Junko shouted back, then shut off the water, “So, the results of that popularity contest are supposed to be today, yeah? That should be something to help revitalize the student body, yeah…?”

“It should be fine,” Mukuro mumbled, hitting the back of her head against the wall, “Unless one of the most popular boys is one of the ones who’s died.”

“Oh my God…” Junko almost whispered in her shock, “That’s right… We have to discuss with Naegi and Kirigiri what to do about it. I was thinking we’d just read every ballot out loud, but now we might have to get clever about it.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” Mukuro agreed, standing back up as Junko made her way out of the bathroom, “Does my hair look too greasy? I’m not sure if I feel up to showering if it isn’t necessary…”

“Hm…” Junko reached out, then ruffled Mukuro’s hair before flashing a thumbs-up, “Minimal grease! No shower technically necessary. You don’t stink, either.”

“That’s good to know,” Mukuro nodded, then turned to face the door out of their room, “I’ll need the extra energy I saved on not showering to spend on problem solving. Should we go?”

“Yeah,” Junko nodded, then grabbed Mukuro’s hand and gave her a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry, okay? We’ll fix this. There’s nothing to worry about anymore. That bear is the only person here who wants us to fight now, and nobody wants to listen to him. As valued members of the student council, we’ll protect our precious classmates, even beyond the end of days!”

“Yes, that’s right,” Mukuro agreed with Junko, then stepped forward and opened the door, making her way out towards the cafeteria. To their relief, Naegi and Kirigiri were the only people already seated there. After the previous evening’s events, it seemed most people were taking time this morning to recover. That worked out well for them, and they went to sit down.

“Good morning,” Kirigiri waved in greeting, then leaned forward on the table, “Glad to see your sense of responsibility is overriding your need to get some rest, just like us two.”

“Actually, we’re here so early because Mukuro thought of a serious problem we need to get sorted out,” Junko slid into a seat across from Kirigiri, “The popularity contest… We were going to read the results today, right? We can’t let Ishimaru or Hagakure win, though. If that happened, it would just make everyone more depressed.”

“Oh wow, that is a problem,” Naegi frowned, furrowing his brow and cupping his chin in his palm, “I didn’t think of that… Kirigiri?”

“It may have crossed my mind, but I was waiting to bring it up until the council was all together,” Kirigiri shrugged, then turned to look at the sisters, “So what do you think we should do about it?”

“Well, the first step would be to tally the votes. We may not need to do anything,” Mukuro started, then looked between Naegi and Kirigiri, “You two… You’re always right with each other, aren’t you? Like me and Junko.”

“I guess we are,” Naegi shrugged, looking to Kirigiri, “I mean, we did know each other before this, tangentally, so I suppose we just sort of… latched on? It’s nice to have friends.”

“It is,” Mukuro agreed, “So I’m very happy that we were all able to become friends.”

“I am too,” Kirigiri nodded with a soft smile, “With any luck, we can make sure nothing else bad happens. Maybe we had to despair a little in order to move forward… After all, Ishimaru was the ‘hound dog’. He was supposed to incite us to follow his lead, but since we’ve seen what happens to anyone who kills somebody…”

“Right,” Junko sighed, looking down at the table, “It’s never good when somebody dies, but if anyone else was thinking of committing a murder, this is the sort of thing to discourage that… A silver lining, I guess,” As Junko spoke, Mukuro wandered over and grabbed the popularity contest box and brought it back to the table, then dumped it out.

“Let’s count,” She changed the topic, staring at the others across the table, who nodded in agreement. Junko pulled all the papers over to herself, able to tally up the numbers in her head at a better speed than anybody else could. Moments later, after a lot of shuffling, she looked up.

“The winners of the popularity contest are Super High School Level Fashion Girl Kyoko Kirigiri, and Super High School Level Detective Leon Kuwata,” She explained, and everyone let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, good,” Mukuro mumbled, then looked over at the ballots as well, “It looks like it was pretty close… But the winners shouldn’t upset anybody.”

“Maybe not,” Monokuma’s voice joined the fray as it dropped down from the ceiling and onto their table, “The winners won’t, but you know what I think I will do? Regardless of if you announce the winners or not, I will most certainly be announcing who voted for who!”


	37. Chapter 37

“...Okay,” Kirigiri tilted her head to the side, giving Monokuma a blank stare, “And why should we care that you’re doing that? I can’t see any possible motivation behind telling everyone who voted for who.”

“There’s all sorts of room for drama there!” Monokuma explained, jumping up onto the table, “You don’t think it would bother Maizono if Leon was to vote for Yamada? Fukawa, if Celes voted for Togami? You’re teenagers, with petty disagreements! I don’t know who voted for who, but there’s bound to be some sort of conflict in there.”

“You’re really grasping at straws here, huh…” Junko rolled her eyes, then grabbed Monokuma by the back of its neck and looked it in the eyes, “What makes you think that all us teenagers are just bloodthirsty, huh? Why would you even decide to try and goad us into murder? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Nobody knows what they’re capable of until they’ve done it, upupu!” Monobear laughed, pulling itself out of Junko’s hand, “Nobody knows what other people are capable of, either! Sometimes, people think they know somebody, but the proof is in the pudding! So let’s make a bet, okay? If my actions serve as the motivation for a murder, you two sisters will start sleeping in separate rooms!” It held its paws to its face, “And if the next murder has nothing to do with this motive, then I’ll answer any single question you have about anything! It’s a great opportunity! You can find out more about your situation, or get some honest sex ed!”

“I’m not sure I want to take you up on that,” Junko pouted.

“...Maybe if the conditions were a little different,” Mukuro mumbled, then looked to Monobear, “Two weeks. If no murders occur in two weeks, then we get the same reward as if a murder had nothing to do with your motive. And if a murder motivated by your actions does occur… Junko and I will separate for as many days as it took for that to happen. Not forever.”

“Upupu… You have a deal!” Monokuma nodded, “Assuming all involved parties agree. I mean, with the new terms, you have no reason to refuse unless you’re less confident in your classmates than you claim.”

“I am completely confident in my classmates! There’s no way your shitty idea will work,” Junko puffed out her cheeks as she leaned forward, “So I’ll take the deal, yeah! Absolutely!”

“See you later!” Monokuma hopped up and out of sight again. Kirigiri was sitting there, relaxed, but Naegi was staring at Mukuro and Junko.

“Are you sure…? If something does go wrong, then that could be really awful for you,” Naegi frowned, then turned to address Mukuro specifically, “I mean, I saw how you freaked out when we first got here and Junko wasn’t in the gym yet…”

“It’s fine,” Mukuro turned away, “After all, I have complete faith in our classmates. If I say that, but shy away from proving it, then what sort of student council are we? I know you’re the only ones who would even know if I turned it down, but I still have to live as a good example...”

“Morning,” Somebody else joined the conversation, and Mukuro turned to see that it was Leon, “Last night was… something. Think we could talk about it?”

“Of course,” Junko nodded, “Anyone specific, or the whole council?”

“Uh, just you and Ikusaba, if it’s okay. I just feel like I know you better,” He looked to Naegi and Kirigiri, tilting his head, “No offense, right?”

“Of course,” Naegi nodded, “I completely understand. These two are more approachable and relatable than us two, whose talents are built on wealthy pursuits. We’ll sit elsewhere,” With that, Kirigiri wordlessly scooped the ballots off the table and led the way to another one, and Leon slid in across from the sisters.

“...I’m sorry for accusing you like that,” He frowned, looking down at the table, “It was out of line for me to behave in such a way towards my friends, even if I do pride myself on an unbiased investigation of anyone from enemies to family. Unbiased investigation is different from rude accusations of false friendship. I let my feelings of potential betrayal get in the way of a proper and civil trial.”

“It’s fine, we were all freaking out,” Junko waved a hand in front of herself, then broke down laughing, leaning on the table, “God, it’s so awful for me to be laughing at a time like this, I just, I only now realized that the entire trial you were considering Mukuro and I as a unit. The whole time, it wasn’t one or the other of us, we were both under suspicion… Even though you know, if we had done it, it probably would have been just one of us, at least by Monokuma’s standards…”

“Finding things more humorous than they are is a known method of coping with trauma,” Yet another voice joined the fray, this time belonging to Oogami, “It seems everyone is coping in different ways, but all of these methods seem to focus on trying to continue life as usual, beyond a bit of extra rest. Nobody will blame you if you need to take time to yourself.”

“Sayaka isn’t coping like that,” Leon frowned, clasping his hands in front of himself, “She left her door unlocked last night, and she won’t get out of bed. I want to at least get her to eat something.”

“We can’t take time to ourselves,” Mukuro added in response to Oogami, “Junko and I can’t, anyway. We have a responsibility… But everyone else, for sure. Give that advice.”

“...Kuwata, shall we go check up on Maizono again?” Oogami questioned, then turned away with a sigh, “Wasn’t there some rule from Monokuma against eating in the dorm rooms…? We’ll have to convince her to come to the cafeteria, if that’s the case,” She pulled out her ID card and checked, “Oh, I see. No eating messy food in the rooms, but not all food is banned. As poor as the etiquette is to eat in a bedroom, it’s poorer etiquette to allow a student to harm herself.”

“Right… Thanks,” Leon nodded as he stood up, then looked out across the cafeteria to see that Chihiro was just standing in the middle of the floor, not moving at all. He turned back to Junko, “...Think you could check in with Fujisaki while we do this?”

“Of course,” Junko agreed, getting to her feet, already recovered from her brief hysterics.


	38. Chapter 38

Mukuro and Junko both stood up and made their way over to Chihiro, who was still just staring into space, unmoving. Junko waved a hand in front of her face, and Mukuro spoke up, “Fujisaki? Are you okay?”

“...Huh?” She snapped out of it and lifted her hands to her chest, looking between the siblings, then frowned, “Oh, sorry. I’m a bit torn up, you see. I… Could have warned you this would happen. I could have softened the blow by saying it definitely would, that somebody definitely would die, but instead I told you I didn’t think the idea of a hound dog was anything to worry about. I did so many readings and came up with the death card each time, but I told myself that there was no way something like that could be true…”

“Anyone would have done the same as you. No fortuneteller is going to blindly accept an awful future like that,” Mukuro assured her, then grabbed her hands and looked away, “Besides. Knowing it was going to happen, and that we were powerless to stop it… Like Maizono and Oowada were, that’s worse, I think.”

“Well, I suppose so,” Chihiro nodded, then pulled her hands back and turned around, “Mondo… Here I am upset that I could have known it would turn out this way, but he actually did know and couldn’t do anything to stop it. I can’t be so pathetic, when he must need comforting more than I do, right…?”

“Wrong,” Mondo’s voice came from the doorway, and Chihiro turned in surprise to see him standing there, and that he’d overheard what she just said, “Look, I’m tough, right? Don’t need to be comforted over every little thing. That’s what that bastard wants, you know? That bear just seems to be reveling in our despair. Best way to rebel is just to show it we can’t be shaken that easily.”

“You can’t just say things like that!” Chihiro stepped up to him and puffed out her cheeks, balling her hands in earnest, “You can’t pretend that you’re strong all the time, because sometimes you’re not. Maybe us being sad is what the bear wants, but it’s still also a natural reaction to having our classmates die!” 

“Well, I’m fine,” Mondo insisted, “I didn’t even know either of them very well, it’s not like I was going around to try making friends. People die, it happens. Sure, I wish there was something I could have done, but I know I was only told it was going to happen so I’d feel that way, so I’m trying my best not to dwell on it. We can’t let that bastard bear manipulate us. So what’s this about how you feel, huh? That thing never said anything to you, so I’d say your feelings toward the situation are a lot more genuine than the ones it tried to plant for me.”

“Oh, about that…” She sighed and closed her eyes, “I… When I was doing readings on our future here, I did pull the death card. I tried telling myself it had some other meaning, or was bound to be far off. If I’d just accepted the truth… It wouldn’t be such a shock to everyone? But do you think it’s worse to know ahead of time, or to believe nothing will go wrong only for it to happen?”

“It’s worse to believe nothing will go wrong,” Mondo answered immediately, and put his hands on her shoulders, “But I say that from the perspective that by the time that bear told me it was going to happen, the warning itself was something going wrong. So when did you do these readings? If it wasn’t within the first two days we were here, then hearing something like that would only serve to upset. A warning early on, though, would have helped us cope better… Maybe. I just swim, you know, I’m not clear on psychological shit. That’s just the way I feel personally.”

“I agree with that statement,” Junko nodded.

“As do I,” Mukuro agreed, but then frowned, “But that’s against my personality type, isn’t it? Junko and Oowada, you’re type A personalities. I think for type B personalities, it’s worse to know something is going to go wrong. That’s why Fujisaki, you wouldn’t believe it, you didn’t want to expect the worst. Type As don’t go right to helplessness, they go to preparation, but type Bs just resign themselves…”

“Well, I don’t think you’re a Type B, Mukuro!” Junko shook her head and slung an arm around her sister’s shoulders, “You’re a Type O! Which I guess in your case means that you blend together a whole bunch of Type A and Type B traits in a big smoothie. You play will it blend with the personalities of the world.”

“Oh, is that why I’m so ordinary? Put enough things in a blender and they’ll just turn brown and boring,” Mukuro noted, then turned back to Chihiro, “In any case, don’t beat yourself up over any of this. You too, Oowada. Just grieve as much as you need to, and blame the bear, not yourselves. It only hurts to say you had any hand in allowing this to happen. It was going to happen no matter what we did, with an extremist in our midst. Let it hurt, but don’t let it get infected. Grief’s a type of wound, after all.”

“That’s a weird way to word it,” Chihiro noted, but gave a nod, “Thank you. I don’t think you’re ordinary at all… Where it counts,” She sighed, then looked up at Mondo, “I’ll take out a book from the library and read in one of those chairs, if you want to go for a swim?”

“Yeah, sounds like a good idea. Thanks,” He directed this thanks to Chihiro and to the sisters, then kept one hand on her shoulder as they walked out of the cafeteria again, leaving Junko and Mukuro now alone in the room.

“Those two seem close,” Junko noted, leaning forward with her hands on her hips, “Don’t you think it’s weird, that so many of us already have connections to each other? Like, there’s Naegi and Kirigiri… Those two… Not to mention Taeko, Fukawa, and Togami. Oh, and us!”

“I don’t know if it’s weird. Similar people do tend to flock together. If there are two people with super-high-school level talents in one place, they’ll know each other, whether it’s as friends or enemies. You all are in a class of your own, after all, and it’s not strange to mingle with anyone else that manages to be on your level,” Mukuro shrugged it off in response.

“Hey, you’re in that class too, now! Your luck is officially confirmed to be a talent on par with any of ours, after all, it got you into Hope’s Peak,” Junko insisted.

“And was getting into Hope’s Peak really a good thing, now?”

“Well, think of it this way… Even if things go super sour and lots of us die here, it was the end of the world. If only five of us live through this weird game thing, well, that’s five more than would’ve if we didn’t get put in this shelter to begin with, right? So it is luck, in a way,” She explained, then smiled, “Not to mention, everyone around you is lucky you’re here!”

“...Thank you,” She nodded, then walked towards the cafeteria door, “But if that’s the case, shouldn’t we be out speaking with everyone around us?”


	39. Not a real chapter

Looking back on this I really hate it, I didn't do well with a lot of aspects. The only aspects of it I consider to hold up are the swaps and the overarching lore. If you really want to know how it ends, this fic is actually background to my drv3 swap, Everyone'S Brand New And Improved Killing Game Semester, so it'll be brushed over during that fic's big reveal when it rolls around. Thanks for reading and I'm sorry I couldn't have written this with better quality. <3


End file.
